ELIMINATING SURGERY VIA MEDICAID..PLS READ

This is from a Dr. in Madison. We MUST act!!! It is time for us to mobilize people! Sitting on Governor Doyle's desk is a budget which ELIMINATES coverage for Bariatric Surgery via Medicaid. Governor Doyle has ASSURED us last week that he was going to veto this provision in the budget. It appears that political pressure (from both parties) has swayed him to a position where he is NOT going to veto this measure. THIS IS A POTENTIALLY DISASTROUS BLOW TO THE AVAILABILITY OF BARIATRIC SURGERY FOR THE CITIZENS OF WISCONSIN! We must act NOW! It is our understanding that the final decision will be made early to mid week. I propose several steps to exert pressure on Governor Doyle to VETO the line item eliminating Medicaid coverage of Bariatric Surgery: 1. I urge everyone reading this to contact the Governor's office directly by phone on Monday. Get fellow postops, preops, family members, employers, friends to call and urge him to veto this measure. Explain what bariatric surgery has done for you. Explain how many medications have been eliminated by your weight loss. Explain how much more productive you are after your weight loss. Explain how your quality of life has improved. FLOOD HIS OFFICE PHONE! Email him. Contact friends in other support groups and urge the same. 2. Someone, everyone, please post something on the ObesityHelp.com Message Boards, both Statewide and Nationwide. Urge people to contact Governor Doyle's Office. Urge them to look at this site for more information. 3. This may sound crazy, but perhaps we could get a significant number of people to actually show up on the Capitol steps on Tuesday. I think (not sure) that I could get at least some members of the media to give this coverage. We can discuss this at Support Group Monday night. Elimination of Medicaid coverage for bariatric surgery has the potential to start a domino effect of non-governmental health care plans doing the same. I talked to the President of the American Society of Bariatric Surgery this morning and he will be calling Governor Doyle from Virginia on Monday morning. He is actually contacting former Governor and HHS Secy Tommy Thompson whom he describes as a supporter of bariatric surgery. The Governor needs to hear that Bariatric Surgery actually SAVES money in the long run. In fact, a gastric bypass is PAID for in other medical cost savings and increased productivity in three years! He needs to hear that CUTTING bariatric coverage from Medicaid will actually result in increased costs to the taxpayers of Wisconsin! PLEASE, ACT NOW! CALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FELLOW PRE- AND POSTOPS!