Funding For Obesity Surgery May Be On A Diet

With the focus on reducing the frequency of obesity, there are surgical alternatives for some who are considered morbidly obese, and despite medications and limited exercise, they are unable to lose weight on their own. However, a lack of funding for obesity surgery may be an indication that many still consider obesity a lifestyle issue rather than a health issue.

Many insurance companies take the stand that procedures like liposuction and gastric bypass are considered cosmetic procedures and do not supply funding for obesity surgery. There is a different line of thinking in other countries such as Canada and great Britain where the government is paying for the morbidly obese to have these procedures. Their reasoning is that being obese can cause a host of other health complications such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. By providing funding for obesity surgery, they are helping in the prevention of other ailments.

In Canada, funding for obesity surgery has increased in the past few years as the country attempts to reduce the medical expenses of other illnesses often made worse by obesity. Bariatric procedures are often recommended when diets changes, exercise and medications have failed to help with weight reduction. Bariatric surgery involves internal reconfiguring the digestive track.

Not All Funds Go Towards Surgical Procedures

In Britain, money is allocated to hospitals and caregivers for the treatment of obesity, but no dollars are specified to be exclusively for Bariatric surgery. As a result, funding for obesity surgery often lags behind payments for prescription regimens and due to the slow acceptance of obesity as an ailment, surgical funding often is used on other types of surgery rather for treatment of obesity.

There is a certain amount of money allocated for surgical procedures within the country and when it is gone, anyone waiting for surgery will have to wait until more funds are available. This same fund pays for procedures other than Bariatric surgery and quite often those on the list for gastric bypass are passed over as other surgeries take precedence over funding for obesity surgery.

It is common for a person to spend many months on a waiting list to receive funding for obesity surgery only to have the funds dry up when they reach the top spot on the list. Outpatient procedures, which are considerably less expensive, may have a wait time of a few weeks, while Bariatric patients may wait for several months.