Cost of Gastric Bypass

The cost of gastric bypass surgery and/or laparoscopic lap banding varies from one country to another. Here in Australia if you are covered by a top health care plan and you have been referred by your GP (General Practitioner) as a morbidly obese person in need of more help than just dieting alone, most of the lap banding costs are covered in your health care plan.

I have lived in Canada for the past year and my special friend in Alberta is a diabetic and a morbidly obese person. I suggested to him that he investigate the possibility of having bariatric lap banding surgery.

On inquiry with his local Doctor, the Doctor was not too familiar with the procedure and was quite discouraging, so my friend being basically somebody who didn't really want to change, let the opportunity pass.

Now his diabetes is rampant and he has had to undergo an eye operation and has been considerably ill this year. He may even lose a couple of toes off his right foot. I cannot emphasis strongly enough that I consider lap banding to be a very good option for anyone who is diabetic and unable to lose weight.

He did investigate to a degree and it was found to be considerably more expensive in Canada than in Australia even with a top-rated health care plan. Also when I went looking for him to see where the nearest bariatric surgeon was, I found that Canada seemed to have a distinct shortage of bariatric surgeons. So that helps to explain why the costs were so much higher in Canada than here in Australia.

It's not a cheap or a short term fix to the problem of morbid obesity. There is no way that it is 'the easy way out'. You pay for the surgical procedure and you pay by never being able to "over-eat" again. You have to work with the physical limitations that a lap band imposes on your eating pattern.

Is the cost of lap banding or gastric bypass worth it? My answer would be an emphatic yes for me to the laparoscopic lap banding but you have to make your own decisions as to what if anything you have done. I suggest you keep getting all the information available on both the gastric bypass and the laparoscopic lap banding and then make up your own mind.