What would you tell a politician who could help you???

Hi Friends! It's me again, your trusty pest, continuing to ask you for info that will aid in my lobbying the government on a local, state and national level to eliminate obesity discrimination AND to make insurance coverage for surgical weight loss a mandatory benefit. Even though I'm in Alabama I am working to lobby all 50 states. It's pay it forward time..........can you please, please help me by answering this question. If you could sit face to face with anyone in power and make a difference.....what would you say to them about WLS and how it will change or has changed your life? Hugs, Rona Your Bari-Godmother

Hi Rona, I'm a newbie on the WLS site and have not even had the surgery yet, but I think if I were speaking to a polititian wanting to convince him or her of the need for nationalized coverage for the surgery, I probably would not go the route of talking about how it has changed a lot of good people's lives or even made them more productive. I would be armed with statistical facts, such as the average lifetime medical costs of people who needed the surgery and received it compared to the average lifetime medical costs of people with the same medical issues who did not receive the surgery. I'm sure it's a very BIG number -- that is, I'm sure that folks who need the surgery and don't receive it cost their insurance companies A LOT more money in their lifetime than those folks *****ceive the surgery. Many of the insurance companies also seem to agree, or they would not be approving the surgeries in the large number that they are. Rona, I think I would try to track down the corporate actuaries for Aetna and some others and simply ask if their own internal reports on that average lifetime cost difference is available to the public. It might be, and having that from a few major insurers makes the case better than any personal feel-good stories. The bottom line for a polititian is cost justification, same as insurance companies, so I'd try to let the polititian know what many of the insurance companies already know: It's a lot cheaper to cure an obese person of their obesity than to spend their entire lives providing expensive and repeated treatments for an endless litany of obesity related symptoms, syndromes and sicknesses. Dana

Well, said. My exact thoughts. As I am one of the costly people insurance pays out, to keep me alive, but will not pay for the WLS. Right On Dana. gail

You need to look at a total picture. It is not only about weight lose but the fact that medically necessary treatment is being denied. If a doctor deems it medically necessary then that persons insurance should have to cover it. The whole purpose of having insurance is to take care of you and make you better. But you have to look at the total picture. You can ask for them to pass laws to cover the WLS but when you have self-insured policies. State level can't help the person. A self-insured policy falls under the ERISA ACT of 1974 and needs to be updated. The ERISA ACT was never intended to provide a loophole for lack of coverage. However, companies hide behind it and it is legal. If you are going to take up lobbying you have to get someone interested intio fixing the ERISA ACT. Now take for example myself. It took a state agency to help me and Wal-Mart is proud of it. Wal-Mart has sub-standard insurance. But they are setting the standard in insurance. Well I would say so after they donated 23million dollars to the Bush re-election fund. V.P. Chaney visited Wal-Mart and stated that they are a fine example of "America Business". Wal-Mart????? Well I guess if you donated that much money to help for re-election. I guess I too would say the samething. You are up against big money. We need numbers behind us. I have said in the past we need a fat march on Washington. Both Pre-op & Post-op's. All of us together tell our story. Sadly to say that may never happen.

sherri and dana make good points