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March 10, 2024 14 mins
Original Air Date: March 10, 2024

1 in 3 women in the U.S. are obese. Not overweight. Obese. Millicent Gorham is CEO of Alliance for Women’s Health & Prevention and has just launched the “everybody covered” campaign.
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(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to Millicent Gorham. She's theCEO for the Alliance for Women's Health and
Preventions. So welcome millicin and tellus first about your organization. What do

(00:23):
you do? Thank you so muchand good morning, Shelley. Appreciate the
opportunity. The Alliance for Women's Healthand Prevention is a five oh one C
four organization. We advance policy relatingto women's preventative healthcare services. And you
are focusing on the issue of obesityas a health issued and you've launched a

(00:49):
new campaign, Everybody Covered. Sowhat does what's that all about? Everybody
Cover campaign is a campaign to educatewomen about obesity. What all that portends
in terms of their physical health,their mental well being, their social wellbeing,
and their financial wellbeing. What wewant to do is to educate the

(01:12):
women and then empower them to haveconversations with their employers and with policy decision
makers like their members of Congress andother elected officials, to better to get
comprehensive obesity care. Okay, soobesity affects one in every three women in

(01:36):
the United States. That's correct,every one in three women adult women in
the United States are living with obesity. Family. Wait, wait, wait,
most people do not understand the differencebetween being overweight and being obese.
There is a difference, So couldyou explain what that is. Science tells

(02:00):
us that women who are living withobesity, who are vastly overweight, are
impacted by other kinds of chronic diseaseslike diabetes, like high blood pressure,
cancer, osteoarthritis. So what we'retrying to do is to educate women about

(02:23):
the impact of obesity and them livingwith obesity. One of the first things
that comes to my mind are theozempics and the wgovis, which apparently are
very very effective in lowering the obesityrate. I mean, people really lose

(02:46):
a lot of weight and kind ofrapidly on them, but they're not all
ways covered by insurance. They're onlycovered by insurance, and correct me if
I'm wrong, if you're diagnosed withanother issue like diabetes too. So what

(03:07):
we know, Shelley, is thatless than fifty percent of all the companies
in the United States are providing comprehensiveobesity coverage within their health benefits package.
So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get the women to
have these kinds have these kinds ofconversations with their employers about providing comprehensive obesity

(03:34):
care within their health benefits package.And for exactly the reason that you've stated
that obesity is a chronic disease,just like high blood pressure, just like
diabetes, and it's only fair thatif we're covering care for those chronic diseases,
then obesity should be covered as well. Well. The thing is what's

(03:57):
so frustrating to me, I meanlistening to this. You know, one
in three women being obese is ahuge, huge number, and most people
cannot afford if you go this route, which seems to be the roote people
want to go because it lowers yourappetite. You're simply not as hungry and

(04:19):
you're eating less. This is whatI think a lot of people would love
to do, but not at acost of one thousand dollars a month.
And I get where you're and Iknow you are talking about a lot of
other things that can be done toincorporate obesity being seen as a health issue

(04:42):
that can impact so much of awomen's health. But all of this really
comes back in my mind to dealingwith insurance companies, because until they're willing
to recognize obesity as a health issue, we're kind of screwed. What Everybody

(05:03):
Cover campaign intends to do is toget the women to help everyone, insurance
carriers, their employers, elected officialsto understand that they want comprehensive OBCD coverage,
that's coverage across the continuum. Sowe're talking about intensive counseling and behavioral

(05:27):
therapy. We're talking about medical nutritiontherapy, physical exercise, surgery, and
the anti OBCD medications. And that'swhy it's really important for the women to
have these crucial conversations with their employersand elected officials. I think it was
the World Health Organization just last weeksaid in a report that obesity was really

(05:57):
a bigger health issue across the worldworld, bigger even than hunger. Well,
what we know is and the sciencetells us that obesity impacts so many
other chronic conditions. It impacts overtwo hundred medical conditions. Again, those

(06:19):
including high blood pressure, diabetes,fertility issues, maternal health, issues.
So when you're talking about obesity,you want and you can put obesity in
check, lessen the obesity, thenyou can also lessen some of the other
chronic diseases that women are living with. I'm speaking with Milicon Gorham. She's

(06:42):
the CEO for the Alliance for Women'sHealth and Prevention, and they've just launched
a new campaign, Everybody Covered,which is trying to get women to advocate
for insurance coverage of comprehensive obesity care. Because obesity is an issue that Millicin
says impacts one in three women inthe United States, so a third of

(07:09):
women are not getting probably not gettingthe healthcare, the medical care that they
should be getting. Is there anycountry that you can point to that is
doing a good job when it comesto treating obesity as a health issue.

(07:30):
I can't answer that question for you, Shelley, but what I do know
is that the Everybody Covered campaign isa national campaign, will be a national
campaign for women of all ages,all stages. We just really want women
who are fifty two percent of theworkforce to be able to get the kind

(07:53):
of care that they need. Onething that we do know is that women
who are living with obesity are paytwenty percent less than women who are not
living with obesity. So what we'rereally hoping is that these women can stay
in the workplace, take care oftheir families, help to take care of
the communities, and live their bestlives. You know, Milicent, you

(08:16):
actually raise a very good issue becausediscrimination against overweight or obese people, it's
really not covered. It's not right, like, you can't discriminate against women,
you can't discriminate against people based ontheir race, or you can't,
you know, discriminate against people forbeing handicapped. But are their laws saying

(08:41):
that you can't discriminate against people becausethey're overweight or obese. And that's one
of the reasons why the Everybody Coveredcampaign wants women to have those kinds of
crucial discussions with their elected officials,both at the state level and at the

(09:01):
Congress to make sure that women canget comprehensive obcity care that they need so
that they can stay in the workplaceand take care of their families and live
their best lives. So how wouldthey get started, Mellicon Gorram, do
you have like, do you havehelp available? Do you have a guide

(09:24):
available where you know for how dowe start this conversation. It's not like
you can make an appointment with yourCEO and sit down and talk to me
about obesity as a health issue.Thank you so much for that, Shelley.
We have a wonderful website at EverybodyCovered dot org which has a number

(09:46):
of resources. It will have atemplate on how you work with talk with
your HR benefits managers about perhaps gettingthose coverage into the health benefits package.
And so that's how we want toreach out to all of the women across
the country. Start with the website, look at the resources, look at

(10:11):
the toolkit that helps you to havethose crucial conversations with the employers as well
as the elected officials. Have youbeen in touch with elected officials on your
end? The Alliance for Women's Healthand Prevention and where do we stand with
that if you have. One ofthe pieces of the Everybody Covered campaign is

(10:33):
that we are also trying to advancelegislation called Treat and Reduce Obesity Act.
The bill has been in Congress forabout ten years now, we're just trying
to get it over the line.So, Shelley, just imagine our mothers,
grandmothers, aunties, even our bestfriends who are at that Medicare age

(10:56):
do not have coverage for care throughMedicare. So that's one of the pieces
that we are trying to get acrosswith the conversations that the women will be
having with their elected officials. Andthe other one is to advance Medicaid expansion
for comprehensive obesity gate care as well. Sixteen states now provide some sort of

(11:22):
comprehensive obesity care, and we justwant all fifty states to be able to
provide that care, not only tothe Medicaid beneficiaries, but also to the
state health employees. This obesity isa bigger issue for women than men.
Why it's a bigger issue because womenare disproportionately impacted by obesity more than men.

(11:48):
What we're find what we have found, and what science tells us,
is that women are more obese thanmen. They are having more issues relating
to again those other chronic diseases morethan men, including heart disease, thirteen
cancers disproportionately are impacted by obesity relativeto women. But why is that?

(12:16):
Why are women impacted more than men? Is it because of pregnancy? I
know a lot of it. Imean, it's real I've had three children,
and it is a real challenge tryingto lose that weight after pregnancy for
most of us. Yes, Shelley, exactly. So part of that issue
is again across the ages and stagesof women's lives, from the fertility issues

(12:43):
all the way through menopause. Womenhave hormonal situations that obesity impacts and therefore
also helps them to gain weight andalso helps to deal with the deal with
the high blood press your diabetes thatcomes along with the obesity. We only

(13:03):
have a few minutes left. Whathave we not addressed, Milicon Gorham that
we should impart to my listeners.Thank you, Shelley. I'm just hoping
that all women will be able togo to the Everybody Covered dot org website.
You'll find a plethora of resources foryou to use to have these crucial

(13:26):
conversations with your employers and elected officials. Okay, and just quickly, you're
you used to be a nurse,right, like a longtime nurse. No,
no, no, I'm not thankyou for that, Shelley. I
am not a nurse. I'm nota nurse. Executive director of the National
Black Nurses Association for twenty seven years. Okay, and how did you did

(13:52):
you actually form Alliance for Women's Healthand Prevention or how did you get involved?
I am the He started off beingthe chair of the board of the
Alliance for Women's Health and Prevention andthen moved over to become also its CEO.
Okay, well, thank you somuch, and again if you want

(14:15):
more information, if you want aguide to how we can make changes.
Uh, because one in three womenbeing obese in the United States and that
being such a big health issue,yes, it should be covered. It's
like, yeah, that's a nobrainer. Go to everybody Covered dot org.
Have you been listening to Sunstein sessionson iHeartRadio? The production of New

(14:39):
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