17-Pound Baby Denied Health Coverage
Posted in Health Care , Health Insurance
October 13th, 2009
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Of course, this denial of coverage caused outrage among the parents and the community, because while four-month-old Alex Lange was 25 inches long and fell into the 99th percentile for height and weight for his age according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, he was still very healthy. The backlash caused Rocky Mountain Health Plans to take a second look at their guidelines. After reviewing their policy, they decided to make some changes to their guidelines, determining that they would provide insurance to any healthy baby, regardless of weight.
Debates like these that are at the center of discussions in Congress over just how the new health care bill should be handled. In the bill as written so far, protections would be set in place to ban insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums for pre-existing conditions. This may stop babies like Alex from being denied coverage with other insurers that have not opted to change their own policies.
The Senate Finance Committee has yet to make final adjustments to the bill; however, as of Tuesday, October 13, 2009, Committee Chair Max Baucus said a vote would occur later in the day. If it passes, this bill along with four other congressional bills regarding health care would need to be passed by both House and Senate before they can reach President Obama.
How do you feel about babies like Alex being denied coverage due to “pre-existing” conditions?
3 Responses to “17-Pound Baby Denied Health Coverage”
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wow, pretty soon they’re going to be denying people for being ugly.
They have no way of telling if the baby is going to be obese or not. My baby was 8 pounds 10.2 Ounces at birth and at 2 months she was 18 pounds. Yes, she was a chunky monkey. But her Dr said don’t worry about her weight right now she isn’t mobile yet. If she is crawling and moving around and is still over weight than we have to worry. She started to crawl at 8 months 2 weeks after she was walking. She is 3 now and is perfectly healthy and nowhere near obese.
[...] 23rd, 2009Return to the Denied Health Insurance Learning Center >>> On the heels of learning that a four-month-old boy had been denied health insurance coverage because he was 17 pounds, which was considered a pre-existing condition of obesity, a 2-year-old [...]