Richard Morgan Downey

Who is Richard Morgan Downey?

Richard Morgan Downey is an American obesity advocate and consultant. He has been actively involved in the obesity field for since 1998. From 1998 to 2006, Mr. Downey was the executive director of the American Obesity Association. AOA was an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting understanding of obesity and advocating public policies to combat the epidemic. During his tenure he organized the first conferences on obesity as a public policy issue, especially childhood obesity, secured an Internal Revenue System Revenue Ruling that expenses for weight loss treatment were eligible for the medical deduction on individual taxes; convinced the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Medicare that obesity is a disease; pushed Surgeon General David Satcher to focus on obesity leading to his groundbreaking Surgeon General’s report; and helped to greatly expanded Medicare coverage of bariatric surgery.

From 2006 to 2008 he was the executive vice president of the Obesity Society, the medical and scientific society for obesity. While at the Obesity Society, Mr.