How Expensive is Bariatric Surgery?
Last week we talked about how in the long run you may be spending as much money on diets and exercise schemes (that don’t always work) as you would on bariatric surgery (which does work). When you look at it in the long run, bariatric surgery is often the better choice.
But that’s just the beginning of cost comparison. Because, as counter-intuitive as it seems, over time, bariatric surgery saves money.
Laparoscopic bariatric surgery (that is, bariatric surgery that is minimally invasive, and therefore has few possible complications) offers you significant savings in areas you may never have thought about.
Bariatric surgery will improve (or even often resolve) a plethora of obesity-related diseases that include:
type-2 diabetes
high blood pressure
heart disease
sleep apnoea
joint pressure and pain
All of these diseases and conditions require frequent medical interventions that include medication, medical consultations, and even hospital visits. Can you even begin to calculate the costs in time, in worry, in days missed from work, in paying more for insurance?
Perhaps less important in the grand scheme of things, but contributing to obesity-related costs, are what we might think of as accessories:
Clothing in your size may be hard to get-and when you do find it, there’s less choice, and everything is more expensive.
You don’t fit into standard-sized seats on trains and aeroplanes, and making alternative travel arrangements is difficult, time-consuming, and costly.
Getting around places in the courtesy wheelchairs provided for the elderly or infirm is an embarrassment and can be an expense in both time and money.
And, finally, let’s not overlook the obvious: you consume-and pay for-much more food than most people do … or that you will, after you have your surgery!
The long-term gains from bariatric surgery aren’t just health-related; they’re budget-related as well. So-how expensive is bariatric surgery? Is it something that you can afford not to do?
