Obesity Continues to Rise: Alarming Statistics Promote Change

by PlacidWay

Americans are fast becoming known as some of the old most obese an overweight in global populations. This is both worrisome and embarrassing to those living in the U.S., where, according to recent statistics. According to veteran news writer Bill Hendrick, writing for WebMD, obesity rates have increased in nearly half of the states in America in the past year, with 38 states admitting that obesity rates have risen over 25%. The highest obesity rates are found in the south, with Mississippi earning the dubious distinction of being the most obese state in the Union.

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Seeking Health, Wellness, and Peace Of Mind – in Mexico

PlacidWay | Dr. Jorge Maytorena

Ken Sewell had had enough. He’d had it with his insurance company. In his own words, “After reviewing the mandatory requirements of my insurance company, I decided to pay for the procedure out of pocket. There was simply no way I could arrange my busy work schedule to meet the demands of local medical providers, not to mention my intolerance for superfluous bureaucracy.”

After carefully determining cost, out of pocket expenses, and other requirements, Sewell realized that his deductible alone would amount to more than half the cost of the procedure. Not only that, but the proposed wait time before he could schedule a gastric sleeve operation was 6 to 8 months in the future, a wait he could hardly afford due to his current condition.

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Gastric Bypass: Travel to Guatemala or Loose my home? – Angels Abroad

Mrs. Margaret Mckenzie, a nurse from Grass Valley, California, made a trip to Guatemala. She contacted a company named, Angels Abroad, and through them, contacted Dr. Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo, a bariatric surgeon trained in the US. She had an open gastric bypass on September 6th 2008, at Las Americas Hospital in Guatemala city.

What is interesting about this story is that, Mrs. Mckenzie has a health insurance, and they can cover a gastric bypass. The problem is that she didn’t had enough money to pay a co-payment and deductible. Co-payment was US $24,000.

It was cheaper to pay an air ticket to go to Guatemala, plus, ground transportation, cell phone, concierge service, meals, hotel, all medical expenses including 4 nights at a 5-star hospital, nurse service, a tour to a tourist attraction and she paid for her companion expenses. All these was less expensive than using her own health insurance. She saved US $10,000.

Due to her weight loss, Mrs. Mckenzie is going to be able to have a better life.

With tears in her eyes, she told that if she had surgery in the US, she probably had to mortgage, for second time, her house. This is a reality americans are considering, to travel abroad to have invasive surgeries, not just cosmetic. Though it is a hard decision to travel to a called “third world country”, and find physicians trained in the US, using state of the art technology, it is becoming necessary, for americans to survive and not loose all of their money in the process.

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