Hello, my name is Tony. I come from a family of thin, active people and only my oldest sister and I are heavy. I have been heavy nearly all my life. The only time I wasn’t heavy was for my first few years of the Navy. My recruiter put me on a one can of soup per day diet. I literally only ate one whole can of soup a day for months because I wanted to join the military so bad, I didn’t really see how awful this method is, and all he cared about was making his quota. At my boot camp graduation I weighed 199lbs and I looked and felt great. Eight years later, I have gained back all of my weight and more. I have been losing weight extremely slow but I have managed to get back down to 295lbs with a BMI of 39. That is a small feat considering I was so unhealthy I developed Type 2 Diabetes. To think I have gained so much back and to develop diabetes at 28 is sickening. I heard stories of people getting LAP-BAND®® at my work so I started to look into it and as soon as I made up my mind to get it I was laid off. That was 8 months ago. The company I worked for reorganized and changed their insurance plans around so the company I had is no longer an option.

I tried getting approval through the VA hospital, but obesity surgery isn't allowed in my region, unfortunately. They have awesome care here at the Albuquerque VA Hospital so I can't be too upset with them. J

Well, today I was offered my old job back! I can't wait to get the ball rolling again. My new options are Independence Blue Cross PPO and Aetna. I haven't made too much headway into figuring out which one would be better (any advice would be awesome). If they both are a dead end I will just max out my flex spending account and do it that way. My sister's LAP-BAND®® surgery was a great success and she looks and feels great, much like I did once upon a time, so whatever the method I will do it!

I have Federal Blue Cross and there is No better coverage than it. Its 100% all i pay is 100 to the hosp. and 100 dollars to the surgeon. I dont know if yours is the same. Good luck!!

Thank you very much. I think IBX is different than Federal Blue Cross. I am hoping that the coverage is the same though.