I just wanted to say it will all work out.  I haven't been through this myself but hopefully all will get worked out.  Stay hopeful like you said.

I'm so excited today I got approved for financing!  Now I can move forward with picking a date!

Jen

I'm wondering if there's any Canucks on here that have any experience getting approved for WLS with their insurance provider, who they use and how they got approval?  I'd even hope my insurance would pay HALF!

Anthem notified us we had to change from an employer sponsored plan to an individual or family one because my husband's company no longer has employees.   However, they are refusing to cover me now because I have "had bariatric surgery within five years".   United Health Care/Golden Rule rejected me for the same reason.    I have sailed through this process so far.  Had surgery on 9/14/10 and have had no complications.   I had a BMI of 41.3 and no co-morbidities when I started.   I've lost 98# and my BMI is now 27, and I'm 32# shy of my goal.   I take no medications and am healthier than ever.

I've gone to the Ohio  Dept of Insurance website to check into their high risk pool and even though they have a pretty lengthy and exhaustive list of pre-existing conditions, WLS is not considered to be one of them.   I'll call Monday to confirm.

In the meantime, I've written to a couple of the trade associations for bariatric surgeons to alert them to this possible trend.   

Has anyone else experienced this?    Any words of wisdom?

Hi there, thanks for your advice.  I'm definitely pulling for you and let me know the outcome.  As was suggested above, I reposted this question in the Roux-en-Y forum and got many responses...all of which were discouraging, however.  They all said that "exclusion" means no chance of coverage no matter what you do.  Apparently your EMPLOYER has the say as to whether or not WLS is covered or excluded, and since premiums are cheaper without it, most exclude it.  Sounds like the only option is to talk with your employer and convince them to cover it next year when the pollicy renews or to self-insure and shop for a pollicy that includes WLS.  As for me, I will be the new owner of my company in 15 months, so I'll have the fortunate priveledge of hand-choosing the pollicy when it's renewal time.  You can bet I won't exclude it!

Hang in there!
Mark