Is this a world first? The NSW state Australian government has announced that it will pay for people with BMIs greater than 30 to have lapband surgery! Damn, I had my band put in last Thursday!! (only kidding, at least I will have beaten the rush) Read more in the newspaper here

Health - Life & Style Home - smh.com.au

Way to go Australia!!!! I am so happy that your government is seeing how useful this tool is to their overweight citizens. Will Australia be the first country to wipe out overweight realated illnesses?

I hope that other governments will follow suit.

You'll still want private health insurance though - can you IMAGINE the public waiting lists once its fully covered?

Just becuase its covered doesnt mean you wont have to wait five years on some list or other to get in to have it done. So many will still want to go private so that they're done when they want to be with whom they want to be. And that means of course that surgeons will charge way more than the scheduled fee so there will be a gap in what medicare covers and what you pay. Same as how it costs zip to have a baby in a public hospital but costs those of us who have private health insurance several thousand dollars.

I mean, I went to the gynae the other week for 5 minutes, cost me $165 and I only got $65 back!

So whilst its great news and something we need, and its for a reasonable bmi of 30+, I suspect it will be far from free for many people. You'll either pay more than Medicare will cover or wait for a loooooong time.

That´s the problem we have in Sweden Jachut. We can get it done for free but it means waiting in a que for 1 to 2 years. I opted to go pay for it myself because I wanted it done NOW. My frame of mind was right and I couldn´t see myself waiting that long. The advantage we in Sweden have is that as long as the surgery is done within Europe (except Switzerland) we can claim the money back from our public health insurance. This is also as long it´s not more expensive than what it would be in Sweden.

I still think that it´s great that Australia is giving people the opportunity to get it done.

I am so glad to read these responses from our friends from countries other than the U.S. As a health services administrator, I am very concerned with national healthcare here in the U.S. As many are aware it is something many in the government are pushing. It isn't all it is cracked up to be. Waiting times are going to be horrible and nothing in life is free. That means nothing. To think that healthcare will be universal and comprehensive is naive at best. It is great to see this discussion because I have spoken to so many people about healthcare throughout my career and it is really interesting to see how little people understand with regards to what will happen if we have national healthcare.

Oh, yes, we have a public system allright, but if you dont have money and private health insurance, you still dont have access to the same type of health care as those who do.

You cant necessarily get an elective surgery done when you want to on the public system.

But the situation currently is that in many areas you simply cannot get a lapband done in a public hospital because all the surgeons that do them operate in the private sector. So there's noone to do it in many cases. And if you go self pay it will cost you over $10,000. So even though I'll bet money it wont end up being free becuase surgeons will simply charge more than the scheduled fee, it will mean that perhaps someone can go self pay and be done privately for only a few thousand dollars. And more surgeons will probably do self pay patients (currently many wont) because with medicare coverage it means the patient is likely to be responsible about their aftercare and be able to afford any revision surgery.

So its a good thing. But the really big difference in our systems is that if you DO have private health insurance, you dont have to prove your right to a certain surgery. If a surgeon will do it, you're covered and most policies cover most things apart from cosmetic surgery. So there's no jumping through hoops prostituting yourself for the insurance companies. You pay your premiums, you get the coverage.