CT WLS bill vote comes tomorrow!
For any of you who might not know, the state (The Insurance and Real Estate Committee) is trying to pass a bill that will require all health insurers in the state to cover WLS and post-op care for medically necessary procedures. It's Raised Bill Number 1300 and the vote is on the 24th (tomorrow).
If you're interested in writing, here is a list of the people on the committee:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/MemberList.asp?comm_code=INS&doc_type=
You can click to email each member of the committee. If you'd like to contact the governor, you can send an email from
http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?a=1317&q=289136
or fax a letter to 860-524-7396. The phone number for her office is 860-566-4840 or 800-406-1527.
And here's a link to the text of the actual bill:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2005/tob/s/2005SB-01300-R00-SB.htm
Thanks for keeping us informed. We can make a difference by explaining to our legislators how important this bill is to us (even though it doesn't benefit us given that we've had our surgeries) and how critical weight loss surgery is to saving lives. I've posted a sample message that can be cut and pasted into a message to send to your government leaders:
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I am writing to ask your support of S.B. 1300/H.B. No. 5721, a bill which would require health insurance coverage for gastric bypass surgery. Like many people who struggled with their weight to the point of suffering serious medical problems because of it, I was given a second chance to live a long and healthy life because of the gastric bypass surgery that was performed on me at Norwalk Hospital. However, despite the recognition by the National Institute of Health that obesity is a disease and that gastric bypass surgery is the "gold standard" for the surgical treatment of this disease (the NIH study is available at http://www.niddk.nih.gov/fund/crfo/Bariatric-Surgery-final.pdf ), an overwhelming number of insurance companies are excluding gastric bypass surgery from the health plans of Connecticut's insured. Such a decision is grossly unfair as it discriminates against those among our population who suffer from morbid obesity. Admittedly, the reasons why any person becomes morbidly obese are complex-- there are neurological, psychological and physiological reasons why the body loses its ability to control its intake of food. However, gastric bypass surgery is a highly effective method of controlling this disease. And, perhaps most promising, the rapid weight loss which gastric bypass surgery brings results in long-term success; with that long-term success comes what is essentially a cure for high blood pressure, type II diabetes and sleep apnea. These results are, in fact, acknowledged by the insurance industry itself as is evident by a recent study conducted by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (which is available on-line at http://www.bcbs.com/tec/Vol18/18_09.pdf ). And, the success of gastric bypass surgery is not just in its relative short-term benefits, but also in the long-term success rates that gastric bypass patients enjoy in avoiding hypertension and type II diabetes, as has been well-documented by the New England Journal of Medicine (a summary of their analysis, which appeared in the December 23, 2004 edition of one of the nation's pre-eminent medical journals, is available at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/351/26/2683 ). Therefore, to deny payment for gastric bypass surgery is to deny an invaluable and highly successful treatment for these co-morbidity disorders that afflict the morbidly obese in staggering numbers. Insurance industry claims that gastric bypass surgery is not effective are simply unfounded based on the evidence above. And, their further specious claim that gastric bypass surgery is too dangerous belies the high rate of pre-mature death suffered by the morbidly obese (who are plagued by higher rates of death due to cardiac disease, complications from diabetes and even cancer). In fact, the National Institutes of Health has reported staggering increased death rates among the morbidly obese (these statistics are available at http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/ ). For instance, people whose BMI was 40 or higher (which is the classification for people whose body-mass-index puts them in the "obese" range) suffered death rates from cancer that were 52 percent higher for men and 62 percent higher for women than rates for normal-weight men and women. In both men and women, higher BMI is associated with higher death rates from cancers of the esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and kidney. Regrettably, the same high death rates for the obese apply to cancers of the stomach and prostate in men and cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix, and ovaries in women. Obese individuals have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of death from all causes, compared with normal-weight individuals.. So, for the insurance industry to claim that gastric bypass is "too dangerous" is simply without merit, particularly given that, as the National Institutes of Health has reported, the life expectancy of a morbidly obese white male is shortened by 13 years (with a staggering 20 year loss for African American men) and the life expectancy of the typical morbidly obese woman is shortened by up to 8 years. This is truly a life-and-death issue. If insurers were to declare that they would no longer pay for high blood pressure medication, or to exclude treatment for diabetes, the public outcry would be deafening. Yet, their decision to exclude gastric bypass surgery is akin to their refusal to treat these other conditions. The cure for morbid obesity that comes from gastric bypass surgery serves to cure these other conditions. And with these cures comes a longer, healthier and happier life-- Connecticut's citizens who suffer from morbid obesity deserve the same opportunity to improve their health and lengthen their lives that I was given. For these reasons, I would ask you to support S.B. 1300/H.B. 5721. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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