14 DAY TRIAL // A recent investigation suggests that bariatric surgery is the most cost-effective way to deal with people who are severely obese. While this has been known for quite some time, the work also suggests that the same correlation holds true for mildly-obese patients as well.
This study is the latest in a series of researches that propose making bariatric surgery available for all fat people. The work was carried out by experts at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSL).
One of the reasons why the United States need to resolve the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation is because these individuals place a massive strain on an already indebted and poorly-set-up healthcare system. The costs associated with treating obesity are appalling.
Bariatric surgery can help patients shed tens of pounds that they shouldn't have put on in the first place, and helps keep them off even if the people being treated don't have the level of intelligence required for them to understand that a lifestyle change is in order.
Apart from people born with conditions that make them obese, the rest of the US population that is in this situation got here by making poor lifestyle choice, not paying attention to what they eat, and consuming all sorts of harmful foods knowingly.
Seeing how there is only a minute chance that they will understand the financial burden they place on others, experts are proposing using bariatric surgery as a means of reducing both the number of obese individuals and the healthcare costs related to treating the condition, and associated disorders.
Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, and the trio oftentimes goes hand in hand. Expenses associated with treating the host of negative side-effects that stem from unconscious eating behaviors are increasing every year.
This increase is directly proportional with the spread of obesity in the general population. At this point, only a third of all Americans are of normal weight. The others are either overweight (33 percent) or obese (34 percent). Of the latter, a large percentage are morbidly obese.
“If lifetime medical costs are taken into consideration, surgery saves severely obese patients money,” explains postdoctoral research associate Su-Hsin Chang, PhD, who is based at the WUSL Division of Public Health Sciences. The expert is also the first author of the new study.
“Insurance companies often pay for treating obesity-related diseases. But a portion of those costs could be saved if they paid for bariatric surgery for a wider range of obese patients,” the investigator adds.
“We did not intend to compare different types of weight loss surgery, but to generalize its effects and costs. Based on our analysis, bariatric surgery should be an option that is universally available to all obese people,” Chang explains.
At this point, bariatric surgeries are very expensive. They range from $20,000 to $25,000 for the initial procedure, and do not include follow-up care.