"Michael Cash" <mikecash@buggerallspammers.com> wrote in message :

> If he loses 300 kilograms, that would work out to what? About 100
> dollars per gram? Somebody help me with the math.

It's a scam. Even the Carita institute or the Deauville Talasso were many
movie TV stars get slimmed are much cheaper. And at the hospital, that guy
has not the slightest chance to get his
anti-cellulite massage in the same sauna as Nicole Kidman or Emmanuelle
Beart.

> But how many people with those medical conditions you mentioned could
> be treated for three million dollars?

Less than one, if it's in the same hospital and they apply the same price
calculation chart.

Well, it's known the treatment of a few ones represents most of the
expenses. A friend is
doing mangement at the pharmacy of the regional hospital in my hometown.
That's the big public hospital for about 1 million inhabitant. That pharmacy
provides medicines for all "inmates" and they give or disptach to smaller
hospitals of the area the special products not sold in town. They "give" the
medicines, but they are supposed to buy them with a set budget. The year the
new tri-therapy drugs became available for HIV patients, they were deeply in
the red, as the imported tri-therapy for less than 100 persons costed more
than the 20 000 other patients' medicines. Other countries have chosen not
to use that treatment till prices droped.

Also an hospital is like  a swimming pool. If they have no patient/customer,
it still costs the same to maintain.
Today, it was cold (29 degree celsius...), so the pool and the 19 staff I've
counted were there just for me. Yesterday, there were over 300 persons. The
ticket was 200 yen both days, but today they could have claimed my visit
costed 50 000 yen. Here they say this guy's treatment is worth 3 millions,
probably because it requires seldom used equipment. But that doesn't mean
that if they abandon the fat guy, the equipment can be used for your
grand-mother's broken leg or my uncle's lung cancer.
Well we certainly see medicine from a different of view. In my country, it
is thought as public service so talking about costs is like talking about
costs of defense. You wouldn't argue by saying that you personnaly don't use
a nuclear submarine or a cell in Guantanamo, or they could be used better
for other patients, as anyway your country would build them regarless of
costs.

CC