Lap band surgery seems to be effective but expensive...I've seen quotes of $30,000 for the surgery. I have over twice that on hand but that's my retirement fund and I'm loath to drop that amount of money if I could get insurance to kick in some.

Right now my insurance policy doesn't cover gastric bypass or lap band. Some people at work are up in arms about it but most of my co-workers appear to be a normal weight or slightly overweight at the most. There are few obese people in the company, and some of the normal weight people have obese husbands/wives/kids who could potentially benefit from the surgery.

I'm just wondering how I can get this surgery if my insurance policy doesn't cover it. Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.

Lap band surgery isn't amagic bullet for people... unless they are wiling to change their behavior for the rest of their life.. the surgery won't help...

So why not just change the behavior and save the money

I concur with maleficent.

I cannot tell you how many people I know that have had the LB surgery. And...they're still between 230 and 250# (these are woman, mostly...and average 5'6). People think that this surgery magically fixes being overweight and it doesn't. You need to have a mind change, too, and a devotion to your health. The 3 women in particular that I can think of right now STILL do not eat correctly. One of these is rather particular about pizza, chips and soda. Another is rather fond of eating fast food and the final woman has just now realized that she could lose more weight by eating right than the LB surgery ever could have provided and regrets her decision to have the surgery done (as well, 1 of these women had to have 3 additional surgeries to correct complications...which would be OUTSIDE of the charge already paid for the surgery).

I don't think 30K (or any real amount of money) is worth losing 25#. I could do this on my own and keep the money in saving for a rainy day. You also need to think about the downfalls of having the surgery such as continual problems with digestion, problems with acid reflux, etc. You may well be on medications until the day you die trying to fix OTHER problems created by the surgery...when you simply could have consulted with a dietician and made some life changes.

No matter what your plan, you need to have a broad view and a goal set...and know that attaining that goal will take commitment. Think about how the LB procedure works...and apply that to your daily routine. Small, healthful meals...frequently. Why not give that a shot for 3 months and see where you wind up? Add in daily walks...increase water consumption and decrease consumption of things you don't NEED to consume.

Good luck!

I understand the surgery isn't a magical cure, and I know it can cause complications and that it doesn't work for everyone. It can work for some people and it's not as drastic as gastric bypass (which I wouldn't consider) but with compliance it can be very effective.

I was just curious.

I'm kind of discouraged because this is the only thing I've posted where people have responded and it's been negative. I'm working out, watching what I eat, and losing weight so it's not like I'm sitting on the sofa munching Cheetos and expecting a miracle cure.

Honestly -this site has asection devoted to surgery but the basic philosophy of the members of the site, is you don't need drugs, or surgery or anything besides consistent action and paying attention.

Every person on this site who's been successful with weight loss at some point in their life, probably felt that nothing they did was working... t

and you're comment in your original post
that fact that oneone would consider something as drastic as surgery for a child is something I don't understand... A child'd weight problem should be addressed with diet, exercise and counselling - not a surgical procedure..

For years my health insurance plan didn't cover birth control pills for women, but did cover viagra for men... and also covered abortions (medically necessary -but that's really open to interpretation) Im kinda glad to see that an insurance company isnt covering lap bands.. people can fix their weight problem, if they want ti

I was referring to co-workers I know who have children in their late teens/early 20s who are still on their insurance. I don't mean little kids.

I'm so old that I do consider 17- 21 year olds children unless they're living out on their own - they are children and weight loss surgery for a teenager is completely inappropriate.. I don't think it's right for a middle aged adult but for a doctor to even consider doing it for a teenager - that's pretty close to malpractice..

We're all entitled to our opinions but plenty of doctors perform lap band surgery on people 18-22 and I'd guess the outcomes are mostly positive; otherwise they'd stop doing it. Doctors like to make money selling surgeries, but they're not going to for long if they keep getting sued by a long stream of teenaged bariatric beriberi sufferers.

So you know there are complications but without having the surgery you already are in the mindset that you are invinsible and it won't happen to you? Just because people have complications doesn't mean that they wouldn't have complied and therefore had been effective.

There are a lot of people here who are just going to give it to you straight. And you've only been here about 3-4 days... ther eis hardly anything to be discouraged about. Not every idea in life gets a round of applause not to mention you are new, so you aren't going to have a huge array of things for people to be positive or negative about. In five months this post won't matter and your life will go on. Not to mention, people take it as an insult in this world when someone hands them the truth instead of what they want to hear.... but that's not an insult. You should be thankful that we're here trying to save you $30k+.


I'm not sure why you want lapband then. If you are losing weight then there isn't a problem. I saw in your diary that you've already lost 10lbs. You are well on your way. Yeah it's tough. But life is tough. And there are a lot of ppl out there who have weighed considerably more than you and have lost weight with a controlled diet and exercise and been successful. Like Maleficent who lost about 200 pounds using what she was born with. It's totally possible.

And one last thing... OMG DON"T TOUCH YOUR RETIREMENT FUND! If you haven't checked things out lately, read Suze Orman or look into what your retirement fund would grow to with and without that money... it's considerable... not to mention you'll take out $30k from your retirement fund and all of that is taxable, so you'll have to take out even more to cover surgery and federal taxes.

I'm curious, then...since everyone who has responded to me is clearly vehemently against any surgical options...why does this section exist?

Because this site is not created by the community... it was created by whomever owns the url... someone set up the framework so the rest of us would have a place to talk.

Yes, but don't the moderators have some control over that?

As a newcomer to this community I had no idea surgery was so unpopular here and I feel blindsided by the responses to what I felt was an honest and (for the forum) appropriate question.

Basically I feel like a dog who has been smacked with a rolled-up newspaper for broaching the subject.

we're pretty much spam police only... we have no control whatsoever

the surgery section gets very very little activity -there are one or two advocates for it - read some of the threads... there are some people in europe who couldn't have the procedure done in their country so they went elsewhere...

what do you think the surgery would do for you that your own efforts wouldn't be able to do?