While Medicare recently announced it may be able to cover some treatments for obesity in the future, chances are few Oregonians have such a benefit with their private or state insurance plans.

”It’s an evolving area,” said Dr. Don Thieman, medical director of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. ”The reason most insurance companies haven’t covered it historically is that the ability to get sustained results has been so poor.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said last week that a new Medicare policy allows obesity to be considered an illness, meaning it’s something that can be treated.

Medicare provides health insurance to people aged 65 or older, some disabled people and those with permanent kidney failure who require a transplant or dialysis.

Previously, language in Medicare’s coverage manual said that obesity was not an illness. Now the public can request that Medicare review medical evidence and determine whether treatments for obesity are effective, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Currently, Medicare only covers obesity treatment, such as weight-loss surgery, if it’s a treatment for another related disease.

Someone who is obese has an excessively high amount of body fat relative to lean, muscle tissue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

The CDC defines overweight as an increased body weight in relation to height, when compared with a standard of acceptable weight.

Calculating a person’s body mass index (BMI) is one way to measure whether a person is at healthy weight for his or her height. The higher a person’s BMI, the more likely he or she is overweight or obese, according to the CDC.

For example, a man who is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds has a BMI of 27, a number that falls into the overweight range. If the same man weighed 250 pounds, his BMI would be 34. A number higher than 30 is considered obese. In Oregon, 57 percent of the population is considered overweight or obese, according to the CDC.

And when it comes to paying for intervention such as surgery, weight-loss programs or nutrition counseling, most of those people have to pay for it themselves.

For people on the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income people, surgery for morbid obesity and health and nutrition counseling to treat obesity are not covered.

Thieman, with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, said the company generally doesn’t cover surgery, drugs used for weight loss or educational services for overweight or obese people.

The plans, however, can vary by employer. He added that a few large employers using Regence BlueCross BlueShield do pay for some weight-loss surgery. People may also receive treatment for another disease, such as nutrition counseling for diabetics, that may cause them to lose weight.

Medicare’s decision to call obesity an illness, Thieman said, has provided an opportunity for more discussion on what is covered.

”We continually each year look at different treatments for obesity,” he said. ”Our decisions are based on the technology, the cost, the effect of added costs on premiums…and (the treatment’s) long-term effectiveness and safety.”

Mohit Ghose, spokesman America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said that while many insurance providers don’t cover treatments for obesity, they get at the health issue in other ways.

AHIP is the trade group representing health insurance providers.

”It may not be in the core services, but there are still avenues for offering some services, depending on benefit packages that want to be created and what employers want to provide,” Ghose said.

For example, Deana Strunk, spokeswoman for Lifewise Health Plan of Oregon, said the company offers its members ”extras.” These include discounts on memberships to certain health clubs and to Weight Watchers, a well-known weight-loss program.

”It’s one more way to help (members) stay healthy, and it’s a plus to being a member,” she said.