Will your baby be uninsurable?
If you want to better understand why health care reform is so important, consider the case of four month old, Alex Lange, of Grand Junction, Colorado.
Alex is a big boy – weighing at 17 pounds and stretching 25 inches long. Despite the fact that Alex was born healthy, has no discernible problems and his doctor says he is in perfect health, it turns out that little Alex is, according to the rules of the game, uninsurable.
Why?
The CDC says that Alex is in the 99th percentile for his height and weight when compared to other babies. It turns out that any child above the 95% percentile has a pre-existing condition for insurance purposes and is, therefore, uninsurable.
Simply put, Alex is too fat- despite the fact that he has yet to begin eating solid food!
Think I’m kidding? I assure you that there is nothing funny about this.
Take a look at the piece running on MSNBC.
Is this really how we want to treat young, new families in America as a matter of policy?
In this case, the negative publicity turned the head of the insurance company in question who has now agreed to insure little Alex and other babies like him. It didn’t hurt that Alex’s dad is a news anchor in Colorado and was able to get the attention of the Denver newspaper.
Good for little Alex and his family- but no guarantees that other insurance companies will do the same.
If this isn’t enough to get the attention of the most skeptical opponent of health care, I truly don’t know what is.
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Maybe this is a dumb question, but how did they know how much the kid weighted? Never having had a kid I have no way of knowing if this is normal info provided to insurance companies.
When you go for a new policy, everyone covered has to take a physical. This, apparently, included the baby.
In response to another comment. See in context »Gee I didn’t have to get a physical when I switched to a policy of my own from my former employee. Just answered filled out a pretty standard questioner. Also isn’t it a bit strange that someone who’s a news anchor at a local TV station doesn’t have employee provided health care? Isn’t that another angle to this story?
In response to another comment. See in context »Maybe…but can’t hit them all.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by baby advice. baby advice said: Rick Ungar – The Policy Page – Will your baby be uninsurable … http://bit.ly/1fVoHl [...]
Pfft. Please. It’s easy to tell this so called “Alex” is in this position because he didn’t show enough personal responsibility and take care of himself properly. Just another fat, lazy person looking for a handout…
*oh sarcasm, glorious sarcasm…
Absolutely right! Word has it he hadn’t even signed up for mother-child Gymboree classes yet! Imagine!
In response to another comment. See in context »Was he rejected through work-subsidized insurance? Seems as if his dad is a news anchor it’d be available — and I’ve never had to take a physical for work insurance. Scary. And weird.
Amanda- someone else raised that question and it is a good one. As I understand the story, the family had an insurance policy and Alex was covered, but they felt it was too expensive so they went looking for another option. That is when they ran into this situation. You would think that Alex’s dad would get employee coverage through his work, but it seems this is not the case.
In response to another comment. See in context »Why are people defending health insurance companies again? If this isn’t an example of skeevy (ahem, that’s the technical term) behavior I don’t know what is. I hope the next time there is a town hall or President Obama addresses Congress you have people waving pictures of their big ol’ babies instead of swastikas and whatever that piece of paper was.(The bill? Their birth certificates?)
And yes, your baby is weighed upon birth and every month after that for six months. My babies are both up in the high percentile as we come from very tall people. Luckily my health insurance company did not take umbrage with my extra long infants.
Not sure who is defending insurance companies in these comments? I don’t see anyone doing so.
In response to another comment. See in context »