We’re at a major milestone in the treatment of obesity; the American Medical Association (AMA) voted, during their annual meeting, to classify obesity as a disease. While not legally binding, this decision from a group of over 224,000 medical professionals could potentially cause a major policy change. How? Obesity will now no longer be thought of and viewed as a lifestyle choice, and instead the dialogue will shift towards the causes, effects, prevention and treatment of the disease.

It’s because of this conferment of this title that we’ll begin to see the patient-doctor dialogue shift in upcoming months. No longer a choice or personal responsibility, the AMA’s decision makes diagnosing and treating obesity a professional obligation. It will need to be treated the same as any other “urgent chronic condition”, “major health concern” and “complex disorder.”

Similarly, insurance providers will see added pressure to reimburse for obesity treatment, something many of them currently don’t do. As Dr. Virginia Hall, an obstetrician from Hershey, said to the AMA prior to the vote, we “should call obesity disease so ‘insurers can stop ducking their responsibility’ in paying for obesity treatments.”  This could be the biggest effect of this change, for both the provider and the patient.