Question any weight loss surgeon about whether gastric bypass surgery lessens a patient's risk of early death and he will tell you without hesitation that it does. Indeed, he will almost certainly be surprised that you have asked the question in the first place as surgeons have known for many years that weight loss surgery extends a patient's life.
but, put that same question to a number of insurance companies and you may well get a very different answer because, until very recently, in spite of the fact that there has been plenty of anecdotal evidence for what everybody knows to be the case, there has been no hard, concrete scientific proof.
Now however the results of two studies have clearly shown in numerical terms that gastric bypass surgery has a significant effect on the death rates of those concerned.
In the first study, a multi-center US study involving 16,000 patients who were followed for 7 years, long-term death rates fell by as much as 40 percent. In addition a second Swedish study involving 4,000 patients demonstrated a 29 percent fall in death rates.
For a long time now insurance companies have sought to put obstacles in the way of patients to stop them from claiming for weight loss surgery and this movement has been gaining momentum recently as the number of obesity surgeries being undertaken has climbed dramatically and weight loss surgery has become more and more accepted with a number of celebrities such as Carnie Wilson, Al Rocker, Star Jones and others undergoing weight loss surgery.
Insurance companies have however stuck strictly to the position that gastric bypass surgery should only be used as a last resort and that all possible efforts to lose weight through exercise and diet, including if necessary the use of medication, must be exhausted before weight loss surgery can be approved. additionally, they have also insisted that gastric bypass surgery should only finally be undertaken if the patient's weight presents a life-threatening risk.
For most people this stance by the insurance companies is seen as being totally ridiculous and a position which has clearly been adopted simply to save the insurance company money. Like it or not, and despite this view, the insurance companies have gotten away with this for many years now because it has not been possible to show in terms of facts and figures that gastric bypass surgery is not simply a convenient and relatively easy way to lose weight but is the only option for many sufferers and an option that will not only improve their quality of life but literally extend their lives, in many cases quite significantly.
For many years now overweight individuals have battled with their weight and, although some have experienced very limited success, most people (and certainly those who need to lose more than 80 pounds) have found that diet and exercise quite simply does not work. However, they have not had a choice and doctors have also been forced to lead them down this road because of the stance of the insurance companies.
Perhaps now at long last the insurance companies will be forced to meet their responsibility in this area and at long last put the needs of their policyholders before those of their shareholders.
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