Question:
I was wanting to know if anyone has ever heard
that once you have this kind of surgery that you can NOT get approved for any other kind of insurance saying that this is a pre existing condition? — teedegee (posted on June 26, 2003)
June 26, 2003
I haven't heard that exactly. But, I am having a bear of a time getting
long term disability thru my job because of it. I was told they just don't
cover people who have had it because there isn't much long term research on
the after effects. Whatever! Have had to jump thru alot of hoops and still
working on it. Its been MONTHS!
— Kris T.
June 26, 2003
As long as you don't have a lag in coverage it is (I think) illegal to say
pre-existing... but I don't know if this is all states or what... I do
think there are laws to protest you...
— MF
June 26, 2003
It's not that you won't be approved, but you will get the highest rating if
you have had a gastric bybass of any kind. They will consider it
pre-existing and any health problems that they can track back to the
bypass, they will not cover. At least that is how is it at BlueShield of
Idaho.
— Christi O.
June 27, 2003
Teena, I happen to work for an insurance company and what I see from my
experience is that most companies will wave any pre-existing clause they
have in your policy as long as you have "contunity of coverage"
whice means no lapse in coverage more than 30 days between active
policies, if for some reason you know that you are going to have a lapse I
would recommed you take a cobra policy with your current carrier until your
new plan takes effect.
— Jenni O.
June 27, 2003
I'm not sure I know what you mean by "any other kind of
insurance". Private policies operate under somewhat different rules
than group policies do.
If you are concerned about group health insurance (the kind you get through
your job), then don't worry. The HIPAA law requires that, for the purposes
of determining pre-existing condition limitations, you have to be given
credit for your time under the previous group policy as long as you haven't
had a break in coverage greater than 63 days (not 30 days as suggested by
an earlier poster). So, for example, if the new policy has a pre-existing
condition limitation that says they won't cover a pre-existing condition
until you've been in the plan for a year, and you were covered by a
previous plan for at least a year (and were not without coverage inbetween
for more than 63 days), the new plan has to cover your pre-exisitng
condition. Say you only had nine months under previous plans (you can
count back all continuous coverage without a lapse of 63+ days). The new
plan would have to give you credit for those nine months, and could impose
the pre-existing condition limitation for only the first three months of
coverage.
If you're concerned about group life insurance, again, you shouldn't have
any problems as most group plans take on all comers for these policies as
is. Group disability policies may impose a waiting period, but these are
usually fairly short (3 to 6 months).
If you're concerned about private insurance (health, life, or disability),
then the insurer might hold the surgery against you, and either refuse to
cover you or rate your premiums higher. That seems ridiculous to me as
those of us who have this surgery do it to improve our health, which should
make us better insurance risks, but I guess they're worried about unknown
future complications.
And, if you don't have the surgery, the insurance companies will still
count against you as pre-existing all of your co-morbidities that you
either have, or may develop without losing the weight (such as diabetes,
heart and circulatory problems, lung and breathing problems, arthritis,
etc.). So, don't let this point scare you off of surgery. It's a Catch-22
either way.
— Vespa R.
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