More than 200 pounds ago, Tammie Morales was 34 and regularly saw a cardiologist.The cardiologist promised the 415-pound Walton County middle school teacher she’d have a heart attack by the age of 40.There were other signs her life needed a change.Morales would frequently get bronchitis; she had high blood pressure and severe acid reflux. And at a sleep clinic that same year, Morales learned she had a severe case of sleep apnea, a disorder related to her obesity that caused her to stop breathing in her sleep as many as 117 times an hour, she said.The diagnosis required Morales to sleep using a machine that would ensure her breathing.“My body was shutting down,” Morales recalled this week.The cardiologist, the therapy for her sleep disorder and the countless doctor visits were all subsidized by the state’s health insurance plan. But in March 2011, Morales took advantage of another state health benefit: bariatric surgery.The surgery, performed by a surgeon at The Longstreet Clinic’s Obesity Solutions center in Gainesville, cost the state some $22,000.A little more than a year after her surgery, Morales weighs 190 pounds.