Free stomach ops possible after shock obesity data

CANBERRA - Already the fifth-fattest nation in the world and watching its collective waistband expand alarmingly, Australia may publicly fund stomach-reducing surgery such as lapbands.

The proposal comes from the federal Parliament's health and ageing committee, following an inquiry that provided frightening figures on the personal and public cost of obesity. The committee also recommended that obesity be officially classified as a chronic disease and proposed other measures, including tax incentives for healthy food and massive marketing and education campaigns.

Its report followed global indicators from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which put Australia's obesity rates behind only those of the United States, Mexico, Britain and Greece.

The most recent Australian national health survey showed that 68 per cent of adult men and 55 per cent of adult women are overweight or obese - up from 64 per cent of men and 49 per cent of women 12 year ago. The survey also recorded a significant increase in child obesity - up from 5.2 per cent in 1995 to 7.8 per cent.

"If the growth rates in obesity continue at the current rate over the next 20 years, an estimated 6.9 million Australians will become obese by 2025," the committee said.

Obesity already weighs heavily on the economy.

An Access Economics report estimated the total annual cost of obesity at more than A$52 billion last year - and growing. This included a A$2 billion slug for the health system through such related diseases as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, various types of cancer and osteoarthritis.

Other costs included lost productivity and the need for carers.

"There is no doubt that obesity presents a serious challenge to the health of Australians," the committee said.

It proposed that bariatric - stomach-reducing - surgery be funded by taxpayers as a last resort for patients who had exhausted all other attempts at weight loss.

It said the World Health Organisation had endorsed surgery such as laproscopic gastric banding as the most effective way of reducing weight and maintaining weight loss in severely obese patients.

Lapbanding reduces the size of the stomach pouch.

While noting that surgery was not a cure for obesity and that it must be linked to a team including dieticians and psychologists, the committee said the procedure reduced related problems such as diabetes and produced a marked fall in medical costs. But it said surgery was expensive and out of reach of many patients.

In 2007 only 4 per cent of more than 6500 lapband operations were performed in public hospitals.

"Many patients, especially those of lower socio-economic status, are unable to access surgery through the public system," the committee said. "This means a large section of the Australian population, a group which is often more likely to be obese, is denied access to a proven successful treatment."

While welcoming the report the Obesity Policy Coalition - including WHO and such bodies as cancer and diabetes council - said the committee had given the junk food industry a free pass.

"It has bowed to pressure from the processed food industry and taken a soft approach to two of the key drivers of obesity: inappropriate and excessive marketing of unhealthy foods, and ... labelling," senior policy adviser Jane Martin said.