Hello to all!!!

I just want to tell everyone good luck on there WLS journey's. I also wanted to as if there is anyone out there who got this surgery and paid out of pocket instead of with insurance, and how did that journey go, and how long did it take? Thanks Jennifer

Hi, Jennifer, I have Kaiser Permanente, and I wasn't willing to wait 1 1/2 to 2 years to start living, so I was self pay. The whole thing cost me around $25,000, and there was little wait time because there wasn't as much paperwork to do. It'll take me forever to pay off, but I figure I'm worth it. Marty

Jennifer, First of all, please, please, please understand that I am NOT saying you shouldn't self-pay. However, if you do decide to go that route, make sure you have your ducks in a row first. If your insurance won't pay for the surgery, they won't pay for any complications either and may even try to say that anything that goes wrong post-op is a result of the surgery. I had a complication and was out of work for 6 months. My insurance paid out over $200,000 on my behalf last year. If I'd had to pay that myself, I'd have gone bankrupt several times over. Also, my brother, who is from Monument, and my sister, who lives in Denver, took incredibly great care of me. They went to bat for me with my surgeon, when he didn't think anything was REALLY wrong with me and with my insurance company, they made sure my bills got paid, my short-term disability checks deposited, that my surgeon signed the paperwork for the short-term disability, cleaned and kept my house up and, finally, my sister, who has 3 dogs of her own, took my 2 to her house when I went into the hospital for the 3rd time and kept them for nearly 3 months. If you do decide to self-pay, you should look at going to Mexico. I think that the "South of the Border" forum is all about having the surgery in Mexico. I know of a number of people who have done that and, I think, the cost is less than $10,000. It's sure worth doing a little research on.