A Falmouth woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against her health insurance company, claiming that it illegally discriminated against her based on her disability — obesity — because it refused to cover her weight loss medication.
[RELATED: 30% of Maine High School Students Overweight or Obese…]
“This type of discrimination is not new; rather, it follows from a long history of prejudice, exclusion, and stigmatization of people with disabilities in general and of people diagnosed with obesity, in particular,” said 29-year-old Jamie Whittemore in her complaint.
“Defendant Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company (“Cigna”) discriminates on the basis of disability when it designs and/or administers health plans that exclude all coverage for prescription medications to treat obesity, a medical condition that is also a disability,” she added.
The class-action lawsuit rests of the premise that obesity, which can also be treated with exercise and dieting, is, in fact, a disability which must be treated with medication.
Whittemore , who works for Maine’s public university system, was prescribed Ozempic in February 2023, and it was initially covered.
In August, however, she was notified that her insurance would no longer pay for her Ozempic, despite her claims that the drug is “medically necessary” to treat her “disability.”
She was also denied coverage for another weight loss drug, Zepbound.
Whittemore has claimed that she cannot afford to purchase the medication without the help of insurance.
As part of the terms of Cigna’s health coverage agreement with Whittemore, the company states that it will not cover medication meant to treat obesity.
Her attorney, Jeffrey Young, claims that the company is nevertheless required by law to cover the medication, since failure to do so constitutes discrimination based on disability.
Young claimed that Whittemore’s class-action suit is the first of its kind in the country.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not specifically list obesity as a disability; however, some courts have determined that obesity can be considered a disability in certain cases, such as when there is an underlying medical issue that prevents someone from losing weight by exercising and eating less.
It is unclear from the lawsuit and other press coverage whether she has an underlying condition that has contributed to her obesity.
