Question:
If obesity is a disease then why isnt...

reconstructive surgery after WLS covered?!! The excessive skin is from a disease (obesity) isnt it?! That would be like covering a heart surgery but not liver surgery which was damaged (both organs) by high BP! The dr.s deciding who is approved or not approved would decide different if they were in 1/2 the peoples shoe who file for any type of pre apporved surgery.!!    — brandy H. (posted on August 20, 2003)

August 20, 2003
Because the surgery needs to be deemed as causing your quality of life to be poor, otherwise it is considered to be a cosmetic proceedure. Say you have an apron that extends down to your thighs and almost to your knees. Or you have constant rashes, infections or skin lesions from the excessive skin. This could be considered to be causing the quality of your life to be poor. But if you just have flappy, hanging skin on your arms and other areas it may not be covered by a person's insurance company. I have read in many posts of insurance companies that have approved for the reasons that I have mentioned in the early part of my response.
   — ChristineB

August 20, 2003
I am just starting to look into plastics for everywhere but mostly looking in the direction of a lower body lift. We will see what a surgoen says. I did some looking at my policy today and as normal it is excluded but does talk about covering related to illness. Hence, if you have developed skin breakdown and infections that keep coming back etc. then you have an illness associated with the skin. If not then it is cosmetic as the only reason you want it removed is to look better - or at least that would be why most do it. <p>The morbid obesity is one disease the hanging skin is just an end result of losing weight. It is not an illness in itself. I don't disagree that it should be considered as reconstructive as lots of hanging skin can cause all kinds of problems physically. Certainly not helping my low back problems, which might help in me getting it covered. <p>I'm technically too early yet but want to get some consults done before October so that I can make some decisions on my insurance for next year. If none will cover it, then I may go for a cheap HMO and put the money I pay now into a medical expense reimbursement account which is taken pre-tax and would end up costing me only about half of the surgery because of it being pre tax. So if the surgery was $10,000 my actual money lost of my paycheck would be between $5000-$6000. I'm already laying out a total of $4600 a year between monthly premium, deductible and co-pay, so it would only be another $100-125 a month. The best part is if I had the surgery early in the year then they will pay the entire bill and consequently it ends up being an interest fee loan that is paid off monthly from my paycheck. Works very well for anyone else trying to figure out a way to pay for this type of work or any other medical things which aren't covered. <p>You analysis of the heart and liver surgery does not truly compare because both would be diseased and classify as an illness. Just hope you have lots of skin issues and get yourself to some sort of doctor every time to document it!! I plan to.
   — zoedogcbr