For laparoscopic gastric bypass, the average hospital stay is 2 days and most patients are back to working condition 2-3 weeks after surgery. I have had some patients back to work on the 4th day after surgery and some patients take 6 weeks to recover. For the open procedure, you can generally double or triple those numbers. Most hospitals require that their insurance company approve a patient for surgery. Unfortunately, not all insurance companies use the same criteria.
Some individuals have policies that exclude weight loss surgery.
Unfortunately, it's a political issue. There is a mountain of data in the medical literature that demonstrates the effectiveness of weight loss surgery. But as you know, insurance companies may have their own agenda. If a person required several concurrent procedures, ie. Most commonly gallbladder removal is performed as a secondary operation.