Author Ron Merk This question is the heart of all the problems associated with the lack or support and treatment for people with obesity. Almost all Governments consider obesity a life style choice. Life style choice equals “your fault” and “fix it” yourself. If you’ve read my articles before, you know that I urge people to be advocates for Weight Loss Surgery reform. Certainly in Canada we have a long journey to go before we get Provincial Governments and Health Authorities to view Weight Loss Surgery as required treatment for a disease called Obesity. I’m afraid that many of us have targeted the wrong issue when it comes to weight loss surgery. The obvious and most visible result of bigotry against obesity is the reduction of budgets by Health Authorities to fund surgery. Classifying Weight Loss surgery as “elective” insures that it comes last after all other surgeries are funded. Frankly you can get a hang-nail dealt with easier and way quicker than you could ever get weight loss surgery. All of us have asked why funding has been cut for WLS and demanding that funding be re-established, but I beleive that we’re asking the wrong questions. What we really need to ask is why are our Governments and Heath Authorities minimizing Public health measures and preventive medicine for Obesity that other conditions often receive generous funding for?(eg Heart Disease/healthy diet, annual physical examinations, immunization programs, smoking cessation campaigns, promotion of exercise and active lifestyles). Whether and how our institutions and organizations pay for obesity treatment should ultimately depend on what health outcomes we value, how much we value them, and the cost of achieving them. Right now our Health Authorities and Government consider Obesity to be a “self inflected” condition or situation which is not a diseases but does represent serious risk factors to health. These attitudes are driven by the professional consultants and team members of the Provincial Ministries Of Health, Health Authorities and College of Physicians. (in other words – Doctors) – yes, I said Doctors!