CBC News Interactive: Obesity Surgery

This is all the WLS and insurance coverage report in Canada. I was surprised that some provinces cover the surgery.

Kat

CBC News Interactive: Obesity Surgery

This is all the WLS and insurance coverage report in Canada. I was surprised that some provinces cover the surgery.

Kat

Looks like I got my BAND one year too soon (Ontario)

Looks like I got my BAND one year too soon (Ontario)

You would still have to wait 5 years before you got it any way. I think that it is a farce that health regions and governments are saying that they are doing all this to help people when in reality it is a drop in the bucket. I think that it does nothing but give obese people a false sense of hope, and gives "regular" people more fodder to tell us to "just stop eating.

Andrew

I think if you read

I think if you read the fine print, even if they OK the band in Ontario, the waiting list would be unbelievable. You would probably have to go to a hospital and have specialized doctors that are not there yet. I just booked my surgery at SWLC for April 24th because I can't wait for our government to decide what they're doing. I was happy to read that I can claim it on my taxes though. That will make a nice big refund next year.

I think that we will see that Canada will go the way that they will do less lapband surgeries.

I have heard from a couple of reliable sources that they may cancel the Lapband program here in Calgary because the aftercare and follow up care is too costly.

Bypass is easier for a health care system as they can just go in section off the gut, and the person loses weight. None of this "I need a fill" business. We all know that medical systems in Canada are not proactive enough, and I think that lapband would fall into that.

Andrew

I think what is important here is that precedence has been set - which gives us a political base to work from. Working with equal access and the medical act demonstrates that there is a dual or tiered system of access to the same treatment.

It matters not if you have or will have the surgery - what matters is that it provides a fundamental starting point that can yield future potential.

I am having the surgery but am prepared to lodge a legal challenge to the refusal of services.

Kat