ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass and Lap Band® Forum - View Single Post

Christina · 10-12-2004, 02:09 PM

As many of you know I haven't had Medical Insurance since June of this year. Why you may ask?? Because my employer switched payroll companies or whatever and since that time it has been one hurdle after another to try and get coverage. When I finally had a ray of hope and they got the stuff together to get Insurance not enough people elected to have the coverage so they could only offer us Individual Insurance as opposed to a group plan. The problem with that.. after I went through the process of getting my paperwork in, is that after you have Gastric Bypass you NO LONGER QUALIFY for an individual plan. Is this discrimination? You bet your sweet butt it is. Who makes this call anyways?? I will tell you who.. they are called mathematicians .. pencil pushers, number crunchers.. you name it. Are they physicians? Are they educated on the fact that after WLS most patients are healthier then probably they are or their teenage kids are?? NO! They don't know jack! I am not bringing this up to upset anyone, but had I been more informed I would have stuck with the cobra plan and went with that after my Insurance lapsed. I want so much to blame my employer, and yes he is partially to blame. I want to blame these so called Insurance companies and yell and scream at the top of my lungs to them. But they won't listen. They simply say for the 5th time in two days to me that I am denied. I do however qualify for a vast amount of "medical discount" programs where there are no pre-existing clauses. I thought well now that sounds wonderful.. until I learned more about it. Basically you still pay out of pocket and pay about $120.00 a month to get a DISCOUNT on your medical services.. that's a bunch of crap.. sorry but it is. So finally I found someone who will insure me on a group plan (Just so you know you can still qualify for group insurance benefits after WLS just not private) I have to join some type of Independant workers union and they guarantee health insurance coverage in a group plan from Health Net. So there I stand doing that. However, I am not going to just sit back and take that type of answer of being denied from an independant coverage because I am a WLS survivor! I will keep you updated on what I am doing to shake things up in congress or wherever I have to do it to get this thrown out as a pre-qualifying condition.