IRS recognizes obesity as disease

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Wednesday, April 3, 2002

WASHINGTON -- Overweight Americans now have a new pocketbook reason to shed some pounds. Recognizing obesity as a disease, the IRS says it will begin allowing taxpayers to claim weight-loss expenses as a medical deduction.

"It really opens the gate for everybody to be at a healthier weight. America really needs to wake up," said Linda Webb Carilli, a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers International Inc.

Apart from the tax break, the Internal Revenue Service ruling could pave the way for insurance companies and such government programs as Medicare to offer coverage for obesity treatment, experts say. Now, it is usually considered a symptom or precursor to some other disease.

"It legitimizes an important area that's been on the fringe," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the nonprofit American Obesity Association.

Taxpayers have been able to deduct the costs of weight-loss programs as a medical expense since 2000 only if they were recommended by a doctor to treat a specific disease. Obesity itself was not recognized by the IRS as an ailment that qualified for the weight-loss expense deduction.

Tuesday's ruling qualifies obesity itself as a disease.

"It's going to help a lot of people," Downey said. "Most of the services are not covered by insurance, and they can be fairly expensive."

There is mounting evidence that obesity takes a huge toll on the nation's health. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health estimated that 97 million adult Americans were overweight or obese; the Obesity Association estimates that 300,000 unnecessary deaths a year can be attributed to the disease.

Obesity is defined by the federal government as excessive mass for a given person's height. Some examples: a 5-foot-5 person is considered obese at 180 pounds; for a 6-foot person, 221 pounds is listed as obese.

Obese people are at heightened risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer and gall bladder disease. A social stigma also is frequently attached to being extremely overweight, the Obesity Association noted.

The IRS ruling cited this growing body of research, including a recent World Health Organization finding, for why it now believes "obesity is medically accepted to be a disease in its own right."

To take the deduction, a taxpayer will have to participate in a weight-loss program for medically valid reasons. Simply joining a gym or a weight-control program to "improve the taxpayer's appearance, general health and sense of well-being" and not under a physician's guidance will not qualify, the IRS said.

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On the Net:

IRS:http://www.irs.gov

American Obesity Association: http://www.obesity.org

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