Obesity Discrimination Suit Against Insurers Met With Skepticism

Arguments to revive disability discrimination lawsuits against major health insurers over their refusal to cover popular medications for obesity treatment were met with skepticism by an appeals court panel on Monday.

Obesity is “an impairment,” US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson said. “Are you simultaneously saying that it’s automatically a disability?”

“I am saying that obesity is an impairment because it is physiological, and that is the focus of the district court’s decision dismissing this case, that obesity is not a disability,” said Anna Prakash, a partner at Nichols Kaster PLLP.

Prakash’s client, University ...