Yet, sufficient funding is lacking in many areas of obesity research. More research on obesity is urgently needed. Government agencies must work together to bring recommendations on health status and obesity to fruition. In spite of unchallenged studies showing that obesity causes cardiovascular disease and diabetes, NIH spends approximately three times as much on diabetes as on obesity research and nine times as much on cardiovascular disease. Severely obese women who previously would have qualified for SSA disability will now be prevented from implementing interventions which may be beneficial, yet too expensive.
Obesity research is limited by insufficient research dollars.
The budget of the National Institutes of Health on obesity should be expanded five-fold, consistent with its importance as a research priority and scientific opportunities. The Internal Revenue Service should allow taxpayers to deduct the costs of obesity treatment, as they can do now for smoking cessation. Deduction of costs could encourage women with obesity to seek appropriate treatment. The Health Care Financing Administration should treat obesity as it does all other conditions under Medicare and Medicaid. The Clinton Administration should include drugs for obesity treatment in its Medicare pharmaceutical benefit proposal.