ObesityHelp

I would think that lobbying your MLA and the health minister and maybe the opposition might help for the future. I would also get on that out of province list as well- the time will pass no matter if you are on that list or not. I wish I had got my butt in gear a while ago.

I know it sucks but it is only a pilot project at this point  and hasn't been up and at it for very long.....  and the criteria is female only at this time. Along with age limits and weight limits so  the exclusion isn't only gender related.

 of course, once the criteria opens up it becomes a 4 to 5 year wait list for those at the bottom, which is what I was told recently when I asked about it. So if you have been recently added to the list, but there are others who didn't fit the original criteria ahead of you...well you get bumped right down.  Which would also mean your two year out of province wait would become 4-5 years, since you are a new applicant...Be careful what you ask for folks. 
I have empathy for those who don't fit the pilot criteria, I really do. But I am TERRIFIED at the thought of having to wait 5 years because I only got my referral in December of 2011.
Quite honestly, if people want to get after their MLAs, I think it makes a heck of a lot more sense to go after them about the lap-band procedure. I have yet to get a reasonable answer as to why that isn't covered and the fact that it might be a more viable option for folks if it were covered would lessen the wait list for the VSG or RNY. Pilot projects are established for a number of reasons and if this has been in place less than two years, I can see the province stalling on issues of efficacy. Lap band procedures have been done here in the province longer than that and they have a decent sized pool to draw conclusions from.
From what I've read the lap-band woukd be my first choice, but if not covered there is no way I can afford it. I believe there are a number of folks in my position. 

 Yep, they'll pay to amputate my limbs should diabetes cause that. But not for the lapband.
I really don't think we should be pushing for the pilot project to expand its criteria, not without more doctors to do the surgery.
However, funding the lapband would make sense.
I honestly think that refusal to fund lapband surgery is a form of "fat discrimination" and I wonder of anyone has looked at filing a human rights complaint.