My son was denied health insurance!!!!!

[Little Panda RN]

I just really need to vent. My son is a truck driver and over the last few years he has put on some weight. He knows he needs to lose the extra weight and he is trying to do so. He is 6' 4" and weights 318 pounds.

He recently was offered insurance through the company he works for and the insurance company denied coverage due to his Height/Weight. That is exactly what it says "coverage denied due to Height/Weight".

Now I am sorry but he is only 23 years old, it is not like he has been over wieght all his life. But since he is now considered obese he is not elligble for health coverage. This is a crock if you ask me:angryfire. What has our health care come too? Pretty soon insurance companies will be dropping those from their policys due to being overweight.

I am just so overwhelmed by this! What is my son to do now? He is trying to lose the weight, he is a wonderful young man, trying to make an honest living but is unable to get healthcare coverage.

I wish I had all the money in world so no one would ever have to be turned down for the healthcare that they deserve. I am so saddened to think that he may have to go the rest of his life without insurance.

What is a mother to do! Sad, Sad, day.

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

I thought you couldn't be denied insurance if you are going through a group plan? If this is not the case, then wouldn't we have even more people without health insurance?

Now note I am just 20 and this is my understanding. If you have a pre-existing condition you need to have health insurance at all times. If it lapses between jobs or anything like that then you can indeed be denied insurance. I need to be aware of this because of my condition, Neurofibromatosis. SOME states you can be hired by a company and be changing jobs and insurance and they can just deny you because they don't want to take on your condition. I am SURE I am not profitable to have on insurance. I need to be VERY careful what state I move to.

[Little Panda RN, ASN, RN]

It's not about one life being better than another.

It's about one life being more profitable than another!

Oh how true!!!! Again it just saddens me to no end.

[Little Panda RN, ASN, RN]

I'm not saying this to be critical of you at all, but how did you think health insurance worked? The insurance companies are in business to make a profit, the maximum profit they can legally make, in whatever way they legally can, and they do that by collecting as much money as they can in premiums, and paying out as little as possible for treatment. YES, they think precisely in terms of which people will cost them too much money and which people they'll turn a profit on. They turn away everyone they think will cost them, and they refuse as much treatment to the people they have insured as they can possibly get away with ... This is (what many people see as) the fundamental problem with private-for-profit healthcare coverage.

Actually elkpark I never really took the time to think about it, since it had never affected me nor anyone in my family. I was living in my own little bubble until it popped. What an eye opening experience this has been for me. Used to think I wanted to work for an insurance company but this has changed my mind.

[CHATSDALE]

there are insurance companies will not pay for weight-loss surgery on the idea that it was cosmetic surgery

my dtr had this surgery and the hospital paid everything except for like $100.00 and she is in the best health of her life

i hope that if she changes jobs this won't be an issue

[mcubed45]

This is just outrageous!!! Where do these insurance companies get the idea that one life is better than another. "Oh your to fat and not worth the money it would take to keep you healthy". I am just so appalled and sickened by all of this.

the idea with insurance is you get it while you're healthy. you pay monthly fees to cover the medical costs of other people. then when you get sick the other healthy people help cover your costs. trying to get insurance AFTER you've been diagnosed with a long term condition is basically going up to a bunch of strangers, asking them for money, and offering them NOTHING in return. cynical, i know, but that's basically what you're doing.

people can complain all they want about how insurance companies decide whether to accept a client or not, but honestly - are YOU willing to pay for the expenses of those "unprofitable" people? would you be willing to pay HIGHER premiums with LESS benefits? because that's what will happen.

money's a great motivator. you can talk til you're blue in the face to some patients about changing their lifestyle and living more healthy. but living healthy's no fun. however, if you tell them they'll be paying out the ass for healthcare b/c they can't get insured, people can suddenly get very motivated. weird huh?

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Moved your thread to Social & Health Care Coverage Activism forum.

Take a look around and see some of the ideas being debated.

Because your son works for a smaller employer, his being verweight at a young age could potentially cost insurance $$$. thereby increasing risk to all employees under the plan, especially if self funded......

I see this all the time in homecare.

Sqme employers have health insurance ---with $1,000 coverage only!

Single payer coverage is available but at a much higher cost. In PA average is ~ $700 to $1,000 month single coverage.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

So, what do high risk people do? They are more likely to need health care, but they can't get covered. It sounds like an impossible situation. And the healthy low risk people probably aren't going to need their coverage. It's topsy turvy.

[MoonRising]

My husband was in a similar situation. Except he had a choice,my husband wanted to get different private insurance instead of having his company insurance because it is "crappy" to say the least. High deductibles, limited coverage, high share of cost, etc. So, it would actually be more economical to have private insurance with better coverage for the same cost. Despite the fact that he almost never goes to the doctor and is in perfect health due to his young age he was denied health insurance because of the same reason "minor height/weight variation." I found this unfair because he is very healthy he is just overweight. Luckily, he can have company benefits in case of an emergency.

This is a problem because I believe that people who don't have health insurance tend to use the ER as their doctor's office and put a strain on the hospital system. But if they had had health coverage they could have just had their check up, at a portion of the cost, instead of waiting until their condition became so bad they had to go to the ER and end up not paying the bill. That hurts all of us.

True health insurance companies are in it to make money but they are simply "passing the bucket" by putting a strain on hospitals in the form of unpaid bills which increases premiums for all anyway.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

This is exactly why health insurance needs to be no exclusions for previously existing conditions....

[Simplepleasures]

So why don't we need health care reform?

[mscsrjhm]

This is exactly why health insurance needs to be no exclusions for previously existing conditions....

Government regulations? Isn't it possible that insurance companies could go bankrupt extremely quickly? Or could it lead to some type of monopoly?

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

The horror.....Actually expecting companies to perform for the common good....