Kerre Woodham: We should swallow cost

Photo / Nigel Marple

There are 800,000 Kiwis classified as obese and, even if you discount the All Blacks' front row, whose BMIs would technically place them in that category, that means a lot of misery, a lot of health problems and a whole lot of money being gobbled up by the health budget.

Heart disease, diabetes, strokes, cancer, arthritis and breathing problems are just some of the issues associated with obesity.

When it comes to calculating the cost of obesity-related illness, we don't have any up-to-date figures but the World Health Organisation estimates the cost to be 7 per cent of a country's health budget.

That's a cool $300 million, or thereabouts.

Now, Tariana Turia has called for public funding to be boosted for stomach stapling operations after revealing she has dropped 13kg and come off her insulin just nine weeks after forking out for her own operation.

She's the Associate Health Minister so her words carry some weight - although less weight than they did nine weeks ago. It is also understood at least three National MPs have had the operation, too, so she'll get a sympathetic hearing.

I know the ascetic among you will be sipping your carrot juice and muttering about self discipline. And certainly, a sensible diet and the need for exercise must be promoted as the long-term solution to curbing obesity. But there are people who are trapped within a prison of their own flesh and see no way out and, for them, a stomach stapling operation is often the only answer.

It's a simple matter of arithmetic. If it's more cost effective for health boards to fund the operation than it is to treat the chronic illnesses of the obese person, then the operations should be funded.