In August 2008, the government of New South Wales announced that it would pay for morbidly obese patients to receive weight loss surgery, the first state to make such an announcement. Most Australians who wish to have such surgery have to go to a private hospital and pay for the procedure themselves, which costs $10,000 (US$10,000). A survey in Western Australia suggests that the number of patients who have undergone weight loss surgery has increased 20-fold in the past 20 years, with nine out of ten patients opting for the lap band procedure.
