# Should the government be paying for obesity suirgery?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-be-paying-for-obesity-suirgery/332741>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 25, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-be-paying-for-obesity-suirgery/332741 "2005-11-25T23:04:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-be-paying-for-obesity-suirgery/332741/21 "2005-11-30T01:37:59Z")

</div>

Hmmm…government allows someone the opportunity to turn over a new leaf and become a healthy active member of society or government pays for very expensive bandaids until someone finishes dying a slow painful death because they are lazy and/or too dumb to stop eating.

Cost aside, I choose the first option. Is it really a choice? I mean, the government spend 13k on some really dumb things, like toilet seats. I do think that gastric bypass should be done on fully informed and screened patients by well-qualified doctors and that it shouldn’t be viewed as a magic cure for a little extra weight.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-be-paying-for-obesity-suirgery/332741/22 "2005-11-30T02:35:09Z")

</div>

> [@Doug Bowe](#):
>
> If the Medicare paid for this could Medicare be the object of a lawsuit?

Not likely. If there were a lawsuit, presumably it would be a malpractice lawsuit, and those go against doctors, not insurance companies. And doctors carry insurance against such suits. Medicare functions as an insurance company. It pays the doctor, but it doesn’t employ the doctor. And to be a successful lawsuit, it would need to prove malpractice. If the surgeon’s (and anesthesiologist’s, etc.) performance was sound, the suit would most likely fail.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-be-paying-for-obesity-suirgery/332741.md?page=1)