To Get Your Insurer to Pay for Weight-Loss Surgery, Put on More Pounds
Dallas is the country’s No. 1 market for weight-loss surgeries. It’s nearly impossible to sit through a 30-minute midday TV program or sift through a newspaper without being pitched an opportunity to transform your body.
Full article on patients who are denied insurance coverage for weight-loss surgery.
As more insurers begin to cover weight-loss surgery, the cost of the surgery will rise as doctors have less incentive to be competitive. The man profiled in the article could get the surgery for $12,000. That doesn’t seem cost prohibitive for someone with his health complaints.
People routinely remodel their house to look better; or buy a new car or truck to drive in style. Yet they resist paying out-of-pocket to look better and improve their long term health. It really doesn’t make sense in my opinion. However, the solution is not to badger health insurers into covering the surgery. The best way is for patient to set money aside tax free in an HSA over a period of a few years and get the surgery. If patients controlled more of their own health care dollars, they would not have to worry as much about what the insurer will pay and will not pay.
I seem to recall a TV show where Texan’s were proud of the fact they could order a 72 ounce steak; and a 3 1/2 pound cinnamon roll. You think that has any relationship to the promotion of weight loss surgery. Maybe cutting down on those deep fried twinkies
would cut down the demand?
What irony. If your insurance won’t pay for your stomach staple, just put on more weight. Then you will qualify.
Some fat people blame thei genes for being fat, but the truth is that there is more to being fat than genes alone.