Is weight gain a “lifestyle choice”?
Although the government authorities responsible for regulating medications have been sceptical, all the European and some South American countries have accepted acomplia as “weight loss” medication. In 2007, the manufacturer Sanofi Aventis, reported relatively modest sales figures of around $120m. This may not look so impressive but European patients have not been subsidised by their governments. They have been paying the full retail price out of their own pockets. The reason for this governmental reluctance is typified by Germany which has refused the right of patients to reclaim the cost out of public funds. Germany classifies acomplia as a “lifestyle product”.
What does this mean? Some states draw a distinction between involuntary illness and conditions brought on by lifestyle choices. Smoking is a classic dilemma for states. If young people today ignore all the prominent health warnings and smoke, should their subsequent treatment for lung cancer be subsidised? Similarly, if young people overeat and become obese, should the state reimburse the cost of treating all their consequent health problems? The answers to these questions have major cost implications. Treating diabetes and heart disease which follow on obesity is very expensive in the long run.
But once you open the door to the “moral” questions of when anyone deserves treatment at public expense, why should a state pay for those who injure themselves when driving on the roads? Injuries per passenger mile are significantly lower in public transport. These distinctions are arbitrary and irrational when people are injured during the ordinary course of their lives. The use of acomplia has been shown to reduce the body weight of all participants in clinical trials by an average of 10%. This reduction in weight significantly reduces the risks of heart disease and other serious conditions requiring long-term treatment. It is a nonsense to refuse subsidy to a medication as effective as acomplia when it saves to much more expense in the long term.
