Fat people and bariatric surgery
Back in April, I read a story in the Toronto Star about gastric bypass procedures (aka ‘stomach stapling’) in Ontario. Many people are currently waiting for OHIP to cover their gastric bypass surgeries in order to help them lose weight. The problem is that there’s a waiting list and the procedure is expensive – close to $20,000. To make matters worse, in 2006, OHIP covered costs for 394 people to travel to the U.S. to have their surgeries done, at a cost of about $40,000 per person.
I understand some people have weight problems and may have trouble losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight. However, I find it hard to justify spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money on surgeries for people who are morbidly obese. I know these people must lose weight in order to improve their health or even to survive in some cases, but I don’t think surgery is necessarily the solution.
The way I see it, fat people are fat for a reason or combination of reasons. But, they have at least some control over this. Sure, some people are genetically predisposed to gaining weight, but I highly doubt somebody weighing in at 350lbs got that way by eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly.
I think what really gets to me is the fact that I have a ‘real disease‘ that cannot be cured, and can only be controlled through the use of medication. Without daily insulin injections, I would die. OHIP doesn’t cover the cost of my insulin or my testing supplies. A morbidly obese person could probably lose weight the old-fashioned way, through diet and lifestyle changes, yet they are able to get their weight-loss surgeries paid for. Food for thought…
Spencer "straight to my OHIP's" McCormack says:
Bamn boy.
All good points Dr. Robert. I’ll sign your petition.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Chris Erwin says:
Wow that’s scary,
I will also sign the petition with 100 fake names plus my own.
August 20th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Christien says:
After a bit of Googling I found that the total direct cost of obesity is estimated to be at least $1.8 billion — a figure that corresponds to 2.4 per cent of the total healthcare expenditures for diseases in Canada in 1997. These procedures in the long run might actually save the system a lot of money.
That being said… let’s put down the forks fatsos
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:32 am