South Carolina to cover obesity surgery next year

[The Straight Story]

South Carolina to cover obesity surgery next year

By SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press Writer Seanna Adcox, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 13, 3:31 pm ET

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Obese government workers in South Carolina can get stomach-shrinking surgery through the state health plan under a pilot program that starts in January.

The state's employee insurance plan will cover gastric-bypass or Lap-Band surgery costs for 100 people statewide on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Stephen VanCamp, director of the employee insurance program.

The surgeries - which involve either surgically creating a smaller stomach or shrinking intake with a belt-like, adjustable device - cost about $24,000 each. Lawmakers required the test program in the 2010-11 budget as a way to address the state's growing obesity problem. The Budget and Control Board was directed to create it as part of workers' benefits plan for 2011, which it approved Thursday.

The Legislature funded the program, as well as an additional $19 million in costs next year because of the new federal health care law - largely for extending coverage to dependents up to age 26 - so employees' monthly health premiums will not change. Nearly 394,000 public workers, their dependents and retirees are covered under the state health plan.

Obesity rates in South Carolina have doubled since 1990, with 30 percent of adults meeting the definition. Nearly two of every three adults in the state are considered overweight or obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100813/ap_on_he_me/us_health_costs_south_carolina

[Donnachaidh]

1. And the money spent on this would be better spent on teaching people to eat responsibly

So the doctors make more money, and the problems that caused the obesity in the first place aren't addressed.

[nosmokes]

2. $240k could go a little ways towards teaching healthy habits but it wouldn't

cost SC a dime for them to enact some regs on the BS that is in the typical diet, like HFCS for starters, and start taxing the infernal 'fast food' products that are largely responsible for our girth.

[Donnachaidh]

3. this is a present for specialized doctors

And the bottom line is, the State is doing it for it's own benefit, because they lose money if their employees are obese. This isn't being done about a *health* issue, it's being done so the State doesn't lose funding.

If there is an underlying eating disorder that is NOT addressed, those people who are receiving a *fast fix* will gain the weight back. And only a 100 people per year? How much do you want to bet that the folks receiving those slots aren't up towards the top of the State's *food chain*?

Wonder how many people in the governor's office qualify? Or the heads of any of the departments? Do you think the overweight office workers in some backwater office will see these *benefits* in the near future?

[lunatica]

4. Obesity is a very complex disorder and eating is only part of the problem

The reasons behind the eating disorder lie in the brain, not in the stomach. People aren't obese because they choose to over eat. They over eat because they have a disorder that makes their brain unable to let them feel full. Getting the stomach stapling type of surgery is not the same as having plastic surgery. It's a life-saving surgery that doesn't let the person eat more than a little but because the food simply doesn't fit in the stomach.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Yep. And, also...

As I understand it, bariatric surgery patients also get tons of nutritional counseling along with the surgery. Granted, a lot of people in these parts have atrocious diets. I've met people in their 40s and 50s who hand NEVER even tried broccoli. Any vegetables people eat are boiled with pork fat. I'm not saying everyone down here eats that way, but a large portion of them do.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that they're going to pay for surgery. On the other hand, they pay state employees shit wages, so this makes up for it in a very, very warped sort of way...I guess.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. They should pay for liiposuction to get the fat off quickly.

I've known too many people who got stomach stapling/various forms thereof and had to have them reversed because they were starving to death.


Metabolic disorders are NOT RARE. They are COMMON.

THIRTY to FORTY MILLION people in the U.S. have glandular disorders -- dead thyroid, overactive thyroid, diabetes, adrenal burnout, lots of metabolic disorders. In some cases it's nothing but overeating and lack of exercise, but in a lot of cases it's far more complex than that.


I got yelled at my entire life growing up for NOT EATING ENOUGH. Getting screamed at, at the dinner table because I wouldn't eat their boiled to death veggies, or their stinky raw onions and bell peppers, or their tomatoes that were way too acid for me to tolerate.

And I wasn't fat then either!!! Not good memories.


Millions of people have their fatigue and obesity ignored by doctors:
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

http://thyroid.about.com