Cost of lap band removal without insurance?

Hello, please. can anyone who has no insurance or an insurance that will not cover lap band removal please tell me how much it cost to have their lap band removed?  I'm not interested in any kind of revision.  I just want the lap band out. I'm experiencing vomiting, severe acid reflux, and at times cannot even drink water without spitting it back up.  I am going to my surgeon's office this coming Monday, but I would like to know the cost range for lap band removal before going on Monday. Any advice will help. thanks. 

it will be in the thousands of dollars.

Seems any revision or removal costs more than the original surgery so maybe if you can price getting a band without insurance it will at least give you a ballpark idea.

Mexico.  It's half or less what the US charges and that is where most self pays go for wls.  It takes research but you can get seriously good care for a fraction of the cost.

Hi WLSVet:

I having great flying privileges and would like a heads up on any good doctors in Mexico that do removal and revision. Thanks for any help you can provide.  I have fallen a long way since band unfilled.  Back to square one but now I'm not covered by insurance.

Agree completely with Mexico. Going there was the only way for me to get surgery as my ins covers nothing to do with weight loss in any form.

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I went to my surgeon's office on Monday.  I told them my issues with extreme acid reflux, night coughs, and vomiting and they did an unfill.  I cannot begin to tell you how good it feels to get a good nights sleep without waking up in the middle of the night with bile coming out of my nose and jolting me out of bed.  I was able to ask about the price of removing the lap band and the estimate for the surgeon's fee, the hospital fee, removal fee, and anesthesia fee comes out to $6,707 without insurance and I can pay in installments by going through a patient financial website to sign up for payments or I can pay it in full if I wanted to.

This amount is fortunately doable for me and I thank God for that.  I was able to schedule a removal for mid August.  They want me to get a revision to either gastric bypass or the sleeve, but right now I am leaning towards just getting the lap band removed with no revision.  I still have time to really think about revision, but I am so afraid of having my stomach more than half removed or my intestines rearranged and then have the WLS not work again.  I can't stand failure again...and plus removal plus revision would be much more expensive and would likely have to occur in Mexico. I live in the panhandle of Texas and Mexico is very nearby.  

I really really really want to talk to you about this.  I was IN your shoes and I do understand.  I just wanted the dang thing out and some relief.  

I was also self pay and I had to think long and hard about a revision. I knew that although I was at goal i would never in a million years stay there without restriction. I was equally as afraid of surgically making my medical problems permanent with a revision.

I cannot stress to you how much easier a sleeve is vs. a band.  Bands should be taken off the market.  Matter of fact, if the original band maker, Inamed, would have told the FDA the entire truth regarding their studies with the band in France, it would have never been approved for use in the US anyway.

A sleeve is your stomach, just smaller.  That's it.  It's that simple.  It's the safest surgery type of all major surgery types available today.  It does what the band was supposed to do.  The band has as many complications in number as bypass and as you can see, it is temporary.

Look, you are self pay.  Get it all done at once.  Don't waste more of your life fighting obesity and band complications.  Life is too short.

I don't know what the cost is in the US for band to sleeve revision but in Mexico for a stellar revision doctor and not a Tijuana freakazoid, it's $7K in and out the door.  You will be spending almost that much in the US just to get the dang thing taken out.

I had a band in 12/06, goal 10/07, revision to a sleeve (at goal) 6/08.  Take control of food issues and move on with your life.  A sleeve is NOTHING like a band, nothing!

Would you mind sending me info you have on revision doc you found in Mexico

I fully understand. Thanks