D. Robertson
10/18/06 - I have been a member of this site for about a year now. I have had an exclusion in my insurance policy that I could not get past. I spoke at a Missouri Senate hearing on March 15,2006 where a bill had been proposed that would mandate insurance companies to provide treatment coverage for morbid obesity. The bill did not pass...too much opposition from the insurance companies. Senator Rita Days is going to bring the bill up again next year. She has been working with some of the insurance companies to improve the wording of the bill to help get it passed.We really need to show a lot of support and make our voices heard. The obese society is one of the few left that it's perfectly ok to discriminate against...in my policy there was coverage for anorexia,bulimia,drug and alcohol addiction but clear exclusions for anything related to weight loss. Wow,that was a strong message to me as to where I stand to my insurance company...behind drug addicts and alcoholics. In fact, the exlcusion for WLS was right before the exclusion for a sex change operation.
Enough of that...I recently have been able to be covered on my partners insurance policy. It will go into effect on November 1,2006. Her policy does cover WLS so hopefully I will be joining the losers bench soon. Thanks to my GOD above. This has been such a struggle but then all things good are worth fighting for.
I am of course morbidly obese ...about 5'6 and 305lbs. I havhad 2 open heart surgeries for a defect I was born with.. The last surgery gave me an artificial aorta valve.The doctor said my heart is abnormally small and I must lose this weight and keep it off.My best friend had WLS a couple of years ago and encouraged me to have a consultation with her surgeon. He said I am a good candidate and my cardiologist is all for it so soon I should get there.
