In The News
A Surgeon’s Thoughts on Having Access to Obesity Care
Hello all. My name is Walt Medlin, and I’m a bariatric surgeon actively practicing in Utah. I also self-paid for my own Sleeve Gastrectomy in 2008, and I’m now more than 10 years post-op.
Every day that I work in my bariatric clinic, my team struggles to help at least a third of the patients we see. This is either because of insurance restrictions or because surgery is too expensive for many patients’ budgets. I was personally lucky to be able to self-pay for my surgery almost 11 years ago, but it was pretty scary because I knew I was risking not being able to afford the extra cost if I had a complication with my surgery — even a minor one.