(Los Angeles Times)     

The American Medical Assn. voted Tuesday to declare obesity a disease, a move that effectively defines 78 million American adults and 12 million children as having a medical condition requiring treatment

The nation's leading physicians organization took the vote after debating whether the action would do more to help affected patients get useful treatment or would further stigmatize a condition with many causes and few easy fixes

Tuesday's vote is certain to step up pressure on health insurance companies to reimburse physicians for the time-consuming task of discussing obesity's health risks with patients whose body mass index exceeds 30. It should also encourage doctors to direct these patients to weight-loss programs and to monitor their often-fitful progress.

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight - a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

"The simple minded and the uninformed can be easily led astray," Is a line from this John Mellencamp song, and it is appropriate when you hear people talking about the "morning after pill" being an abortion pill when it will actually cut down on the need for abortions. It is appropriate when you hear people talking about health care reform as a negative, when it will make health care more affordable for more Americans.  Companies are telling their employees that they can no longer provide spousal coverage, or they they have to cut their hours to under thirty a week because of Obama Care," none of which is true. But as the song says,"People believe what they want to believe when it makes no sense at all."