County court decides against paying for weight-loss surgery
The Travis County Commis-sioners Court reversed the decision to include diet, exercise and bariatric weight loss plans and surgeries in Travis County employees’ health-care insurance Tuesday.
The plan, passed Sept. 19, was to cover the costs of 15 weight- loss surgeries per year for county employees. Each surgery was expected to cost between $15,000 and $25,000, while treatments for heart-related problems related to obesity cost as much as $50,000.
Barbara Smith, executive assistant to Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, said revoking the decision was for a lack of evidence proving the plan would decrease the amount of insurance money used to treat obesity-related illnesses. Research to support the idea that covering weight loss treatment for employees would save the county money lasted for about 18 months, but the results were unclear whether this would truly cut costs, Smith said.
Commissioners received a lot of opposing feedback from constituents, said Dan Mansour, the county risk and benefits manager. He said it was this healthy dialogue with constituents that prompted the commissioners to rethink their decision.
