Yes you read that right. In certain postal codes in England, severely overweight people are being denied life-saving surgery because it is not cost effective.
 Severe clinical obesity can be life threatening. |
The National Health Service (NHS), the name commonly used to refer to the three publicly funded health care systems in England, is telling people that they don’t qualify for surgery even though they are clinically obese.
Some people in more affluent postal codes with lower BMIs qualify for surgery right away, while the lower and middle class are being told to get fatter so that they will develop life-threatening complications, which will then qualify them for surgery. This policy allows some people with BMI of 40 to get the surgery, while others with BMI of 60 are labeled as “too skinny”, simply because of where they live.
Yikes.
Read more: Obese patients ‘encouraged to put on weight to qualify for surgery’
One expert, Dr. David Ludwig, has commented that even though he is encouraged by these findings, “it is still too soon to know if this really means we’re beginning to make meaningful inroads into this epidemic. It may simply be a statistical fluke.” Another expert maintains that there is at least a small level of optimism about these results.
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