Here’s an example of the kind of reporting that irks hell out of me.

First, this fine article by Carla K. Johnson at the Associated Press reporting on a new study from Australia:

A new study gives the strongest evidence yet that obesity surgery can cure diabetes. Patients who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs were five times more likely to see their diabetes disappear over the next two years than were patients who had standard diabetes care, according to Australian researchers.

Most of the surgery patients were able to stop taking diabetes drugs and achieve normal blood tests.

“It’s the best therapy for diabetes that we have today, and it’s very low risk,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. John Dixon of Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia.

Ms. Johnson goes on to state that patients in the study were given what we know as the laproscopic band or “lap band” surgery but that gastric bypass, more common here in North America is “even more effective against diabetes.”

Nothing wrong there, that I can see. Just some reporting on a new medical study.

Two days later, and here’s the part that PISSES me off, is this piece of crap:

OHIP won’t pay for surgery that fights diabetes
Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: JASON BUCKLAND
Jan. 24, 2008

A safe but expensive weight-loss operation that helps diabetics will continue to come out of patients’ pockets.

The $15,000 procedure, called Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB), has been found five times more likely to reverse Type 2 diabetes than conventional diet and exercise, according to an Australian study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But because the surgery is relatively new, OHIP is unlikely to foot the bill any time soon.

This is a pack of lies. OHIP WILL pay for gastric bypass. It just won’t pay for “lap band” surgery. So which publicist for which “private” Lap band clinic planted this story? I’m all for forcing OHIP to get with the program when it comes keeping up with newer techniques and better methods of treatment but clearly that is not what this piece is about. This is about a private clinic trying to get some of the OHIP pie. By Lying. Asshats.