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American Morning
Louisiana About to Offer Free Gastric Bypass Surgery
Aired October 16, 2003 - 08:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Louisiana is about to offer free gastric bypass surgery to dozens of obese people who work for the state. The idea is to see if the radical stomach operation saves money by making workers healthier in the long run. The state is spending a million dollars on the pilot program.
Would it be a sound public health policy, though?
That's the question.
And joining us this morning, Dr. Howard Shapiro. He is an expert on weight loss. Also joining us, Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, who's undergone gastric bypass surgery. He's in Washington, D.C. for us this morning.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Nice to see you both.
DR. HOWARD SHAPIRO, WEIGHT LOSS SPECIALIST: Good morning.
REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: I've got an expert on medicine here, also an expert on public policy. So let's begin with our expert on medicine.
Dr. Shapiro, is it your prediction that this gastric bypass surgery will actually show what they're hoping to show in this experiment, that it'll save money in the long run?
SHAPIRO: Well, I think they know that now, or we know that now, because the bottom line is people that are overweight and obese have high risks for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a lot of other medical conditions. We know that if you lose significant weight, you can change all of that.
So I applaud the study that they're doing and I think it's great that they're affording this to some people. But I don't think it's going to show them anything more than what we already know.
The real key here is to make people believe that this is not the easiest of all things to do. This is not a walk in the park and it's only for those people that are morbidly obese, that have other medical conditions along with it. And I think for those people, it's very important.
I really think that maybe money should be spent to deal with kids, to deal with parents, teach parents policies that they can show their kids. Have the public health department send out notices to doctors and start the educational system...
O'BRIEN: When you say these people, you're, of course, talking about, to some degree, Congressman Nadler, who had the procedure done, very successfully, I think it's fair to say.
And I guess the question, then, Congressman Nadler, is do you pour money in at the front end, you know, a million dollars at the beginning? Or should you even back it up further to children and education? I mean where should the money be spent is sort of the public policy question.
NADLER: Well, there's no question, I agree with Dr. Shapiro, there's no question bariatrical weight loss surgery is the last resort. You should do everything you can first and obviously we have an epidemic of morbid obesity in this society today. It's the greatest, largest, fastest growing public health problem and we're seeing more and more very heavy and obese children. They're even starting to do the surgery in teenagers. And clearly we should spend money in prevention and so forth.
But we also know that the statistics for people with a body mass index over 50, losing weight without the surgery and keeping it off is essentially zero. So many people need this kind of surgery, but it should be done -- and health insurance should pay for it. But only after other things -- almost everything else has been tried.
The one thing I disagree with Dr. Shapiro is that the American Society for Bariatric Surgery said that if you have a body mass index over 40, you're morbidly obese, the bariatric surgery is the treatment of choice even if there are no complications such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
SHAPIRO: I mean that may be proper. But you have to also decide if people have tried other things first.
NADLER: Yes.
SHAPIRO: You don't want to take people that are just 40 percent -- or have a body index of 40 and say I want to do surgery. They have to try other things first, then go at that.
O'BRIEN: But at the same time, you have a thousand people who've signed up -- they're going to take 40 people. A thousand people have signed up, which has got to be an indication...
SHAPIRO: I'm sure that you can get a million people to sign up for this because there are a million people that are overweight. I had a patient that was only in her 30s and had this, and she was only about 45 pounds overweight, and I thought that was a crime.
So I think people shouldn't look at that as the easiest thing. I'm not against this. I think this is an excellent surgery for these conditions, people that really have other medical conditions and have tried other things first. O'BRIEN: Do you think -- let me just jump in and get Congressman Nadler to give us the final word here.
Do you think that they're sort of plowing new ground, that if this works in Louisiana, this is something that we're going to see across the country?
NADLER: Well, I certainly hope so. I think that for many, many people, this is the -- this is a life saving and a necessary procedure. I would agree with Dr. Shapiro, this should be done only after you've tried everything else. But if you have tried everything else and you're 100 pounds overweight or 40 BMI, you should have the surgery. And insurance should pay for it and states should pay for it if they're doing the insurance for their employees.
O'BRIEN: Well, we will see how it turns out for the folks in Louisiana.
We should mention, there's going to be a control group, as well, that will exercise and try diet, as well.
Howard Shapiro and also Congressman Nadler.
Thanks for joining us this morning, gentlemen.
Nice to see you both.
Appreciate it.
SHAPIRO: Good morning. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 16, 2003 - 08:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Louisiana is about to offer free gastric bypass surgery to dozens of obese people who work for the state. The idea is to see if the radical stomach operation saves money by making workers healthier in the long run. The state is spending a million dollars on the pilot program.
Would it be a sound public health policy, though?
That's the question.
And joining us this morning, Dr. Howard Shapiro. He is an expert on weight loss. Also joining us, Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, who's undergone gastric bypass surgery. He's in Washington, D.C. for us this morning.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Nice to see you both.
DR. HOWARD SHAPIRO, WEIGHT LOSS SPECIALIST: Good morning.
REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: I've got an expert on medicine here, also an expert on public policy. So let's begin with our expert on medicine.
Dr. Shapiro, is it your prediction that this gastric bypass surgery will actually show what they're hoping to show in this experiment, that it'll save money in the long run?
SHAPIRO: Well, I think they know that now, or we know that now, because the bottom line is people that are overweight and obese have high risks for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a lot of other medical conditions. We know that if you lose significant weight, you can change all of that.
So I applaud the study that they're doing and I think it's great that they're affording this to some people. But I don't think it's going to show them anything more than what we already know.
The real key here is to make people believe that this is not the easiest of all things to do. This is not a walk in the park and it's only for those people that are morbidly obese, that have other medical conditions along with it. And I think for those people, it's very important.
I really think that maybe money should be spent to deal with kids, to deal with parents, teach parents policies that they can show their kids. Have the public health department send out notices to doctors and start the educational system...
O'BRIEN: When you say these people, you're, of course, talking about, to some degree, Congressman Nadler, who had the procedure done, very successfully, I think it's fair to say.
And I guess the question, then, Congressman Nadler, is do you pour money in at the front end, you know, a million dollars at the beginning? Or should you even back it up further to children and education? I mean where should the money be spent is sort of the public policy question.
NADLER: Well, there's no question, I agree with Dr. Shapiro, there's no question bariatrical weight loss surgery is the last resort. You should do everything you can first and obviously we have an epidemic of morbid obesity in this society today. It's the greatest, largest, fastest growing public health problem and we're seeing more and more very heavy and obese children. They're even starting to do the surgery in teenagers. And clearly we should spend money in prevention and so forth.
But we also know that the statistics for people with a body mass index over 50, losing weight without the surgery and keeping it off is essentially zero. So many people need this kind of surgery, but it should be done -- and health insurance should pay for it. But only after other things -- almost everything else has been tried.
The one thing I disagree with Dr. Shapiro is that the American Society for Bariatric Surgery said that if you have a body mass index over 40, you're morbidly obese, the bariatric surgery is the treatment of choice even if there are no complications such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
SHAPIRO: I mean that may be proper. But you have to also decide if people have tried other things first.
NADLER: Yes.
SHAPIRO: You don't want to take people that are just 40 percent -- or have a body index of 40 and say I want to do surgery. They have to try other things first, then go at that.
O'BRIEN: But at the same time, you have a thousand people who've signed up -- they're going to take 40 people. A thousand people have signed up, which has got to be an indication...
SHAPIRO: I'm sure that you can get a million people to sign up for this because there are a million people that are overweight. I had a patient that was only in her 30s and had this, and she was only about 45 pounds overweight, and I thought that was a crime.
So I think people shouldn't look at that as the easiest thing. I'm not against this. I think this is an excellent surgery for these conditions, people that really have other medical conditions and have tried other things first. O'BRIEN: Do you think -- let me just jump in and get Congressman Nadler to give us the final word here.
Do you think that they're sort of plowing new ground, that if this works in Louisiana, this is something that we're going to see across the country?
NADLER: Well, I certainly hope so. I think that for many, many people, this is the -- this is a life saving and a necessary procedure. I would agree with Dr. Shapiro, this should be done only after you've tried everything else. But if you have tried everything else and you're 100 pounds overweight or 40 BMI, you should have the surgery. And insurance should pay for it and states should pay for it if they're doing the insurance for their employees.
O'BRIEN: Well, we will see how it turns out for the folks in Louisiana.
We should mention, there's going to be a control group, as well, that will exercise and try diet, as well.
Howard Shapiro and also Congressman Nadler.
Thanks for joining us this morning, gentlemen.
Nice to see you both.
Appreciate it.
SHAPIRO: Good morning. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
