Am I Too Fat for Health Insurance?47 lbs LOSTso farNovember 12, 2007 by Israel Lagares | 108 comments
Last night I rented the movie SiCKO by Michael Moore. I had heard about it a few months ago but didn’t think to go see it at the theater. I usually deem movies DVD worthy then wait for their release to rent them via Block Buster Video. Anyway, I knew what it was about and liked his last movie about 911, so I gave it a shot. It was about the health care system and how the health care industry is making tons of profit and not helping patients.
I must say, watching this movie made me want to move out of the country (since there is no universal health care here in the US of A). I can totally relate with the one person that was denied health insurance coverage due to their high BMI. BMI is a load of crap if you didn’t already know. I first came across BMI issues during bootcamp. But that’s another story. This is about being denied insurance because of my fatness. A couple of years ago I was in search of health insurance for my family. I did some research online and found some sites that I could submit my info to for quotes.
A week or so after submitting all my info I received a letter stating that my family could be covered but I couldn’t because I was considered morbidly obese and of “high risk.” I called them back and gave them the example of a body builder having a high BMI and being in shape. They wouldn’t see my side of the story and I was forced to accept their bull shit reason. I would remain denied health coverage because I was too fat.
The amazing thing about it was that I was actually in pretty decent shape a few years ago when this happened. I was about 250 to 260 lbs and in good shape as far as my cardiovascular system was concerned. I just happened to be a bit heavy, like I have always been. At my height of size feet, six foot one on good days, I was considered by most to be in good shape. Not to the health insurance companies though. They judge you based on BMI (body mass index), which is just absurd. It pisses me off just thinking about it and fuels my healthy weight loss.
I know I am not the only overweight person that has been denied health care coverage. Have any of you been through this? Let me know below.
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No problem for me as I live in France!
Luck you. Lucky you. I think I recall the movie traveling to France and featuring a few folks.
Don’t think so! If you clear in your health screening/bloodcheck etc.. You should be fine for a health insurance here..
Anyway, a friend of mine know a doctor and you’ll get special treatment (you know what I mean?)
No special screening for fat people. The only special screening is that they put us in the DENIED folder.
OMG,is it possible that such things are happening in civilized world… health insurance should be normal human right, not a privilege for rich, slim or whatever ppl!
Oh it’s possible, it’s happening.
Why don’t you move to a less draconian country?
I’m not being sarcastic, I mean it.
I totally agree, except for fat people everyone should have health insurance…
That’s pretty closed minded..
Shoot yourself in the face
That’s the problem in the USA. Many services that should be funded by the federal government aren’t, and are operated by private companies, that don’t see health insurance as a right, but a service which they don’t HAVE to provide. Basically meaning they’re doing it as a business.
I know here in Israel [not you, the country] health insurance is not optional, it’s REQUIRED by the government. Everyone must pay it, and is mostly funded by the government. That way there is never any case where you arrive at the hospital in a puddle of blood and you’ll be asked to provide insurance before they treat you [I've heard of it happening]
Yes, you should see the movie SiCKO. The health industry is run by private companies that are all about making money.
its a business you idiot of course they’re in it to make money.
Well it SHOULDN’T be about making money, idiot.
It’s like profiting on human misery
It most certainly should be about making money, what other possible reason is there to be in business?
Why not profit on human misery? If people were healthy then they probably wouldn’t be miserable.
It boils down to taking responsibility for yourself and having some self respect. If you do those things you wont be a fat slob and you wont be denied health insurance.
Insurance companies are a legal SCAM!! Only people who have not had to deal with insurance companies turning them down can be so stupid and nieve to believe that this is not true. I was diagnosed with diabetes and I am self employed. Well guess what, I cannot get health insurance. I even tries to get a high deductable plan($5,000)and an HSA and was still turned down. People don’t realize that it’s not just the things that perhaps we can control but it is things that we cannot control that the insurance companies are saying no to. Health Insurance companies are robbing us finacially and physically and the government is standing by and letting them do it. It’s descrimination against the sick. I am very surprised the people have not stood together on this and taken the insurance companies to court on the the descrimination side of it. Oh and if anyone says “you can get coverage” then let me ask you this, is it affordable?
Duh… look at social security and how much it is screwed up by being a ‘right’ that the government provides. If health insurance becomes a ‘right’ that the government provides as well we’ll have similar issues.
Vote for Hillary in 2008. Universal health care is the way to go.
I will, but “THEY” won’t let her win.
Universal health care is NOT the way to go. Can you cite one one service that the government provides besides national defense that is not messed up?
Please don’t mention medicare or medicaid. They are so far over budget, there is no snagging them back in.
Look at Canada. There is a hospital in the US, I cannot remember the name, near the Canada border that doesn’t take medicare or medicaid. Therefore, they can say NO to people who cannot pay.
What type of customer is filling this hospital? People from Canada who cannot get an MRI without a year’s wait. People who have the money and want to pay for the best, most advanced medical care in the world are coming to this hospital.
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it is “free”. Without some rationing system, money or government, it is a bottomless pit.
Who is “they”?
I think you need to have watched the film “SiCKO” to understand. Its basically everyone representing the big insurance companies.
Yes. Thanks Tomer
Israel at least an overweight person can lose the weight. My wife was denied health insurance in Florida from a company because she is a Lawyer. According to the agent Lawyers are high risk heart condition individuals. WTF? Change professions just to get insurance ?? These companies milk us dry.
Wow, thats a new one. I have not heard of that before. Sad…
Damnnn thats unbelievable…only in America :/
heh, she’s a lawyer. She should sue!
You can get coverage. You must not have looked very hard. 6′1″ 260lbs, is accepted by at least 4 different companies that I know. You may not get the preferred rates, but you should have an offer. Now if you have other problems, HBP, High Cholesterol, etc., that is a different issue.
I hope that this wasn’t just an attempt to blame the system. We do have a problem with our medical system today. Not just health insurance. Why should we have a nationalized or some other form of government coverage? The current problems started in WW2 with wage and price freezes. The way that businesses could attract and retain employees was by offering benefits. Health insurance was an easy one to provide. Now we expect the employer, and the government, to proved the coverage.
We need to get off of the “provided insurance” circle and have everyone buy their own. Yes, we would need to require companies to take everyone, but only during election periods. If a person chooses not to get insurance, why should I, as a responsible person with insurance, end up paying for those that don’t buy insurance?
You want a solution? Make providers stop charging so much! What does a doctor make in Canada and France? How come Canadians come here for the best care?
Stop pointing the finger at the insurance companies and look at the big picture!
By the way, HillaryCare is a loosing program. She just wants to have more control of our money.
It depends on which state a person is in, as well. Some states, like Kentucky, have guaranteed coverage: Insurance companies cannot deny coverage, but you pay through the teeth if you are high risk. Most states, though, do not have guaranteed coverage.
Actually most states do have guaranteed coverage, thanks to HIPAA.
You are right in your assesment. That part I liked is:
“Yes, we would need to require companies to take everyone, but only during election periods. If a person chooses not to get insurance, why should I, as a responsible person with insurance, end up paying for those that don’t buy insurance?”
That is the answer there. That way, everyone is paying into the system and it will have the money to pay for those who are less healthy. This is the way medicare is set up for people who elect coverage during the “open enrollment period”. If you snooze, you loose.
Happened to me. 275lbs at 5′11″.
However, that’s the only factor they looked at, ignoring things like muscle mass and regular exercise.
Ok, that’s just fat. Unless you are claiming 100 pounds of ‘muscle mass’ (pic or it isn’t true) you are fat. If you are fat, you are a greater health risk. If you are a greater health risk you are a greater profit risk. I wouldn’t insure you either.
Health insurance shouldn’t be a get-out-of-death free card. You have a little work to do.
Let’s play a thought game. Say you run a car rental business. You rent cars for amounts well below the cost of the car because you expect to get the car back in working order so you can rent it to someone else. A really old lady walks in with glasses so thick she can’t see the papers in front of her she’s supposed to sign. Do you rent the car to her? If you do, you’re an idiot. Walk her to the bus stop and get back to business. Renting to her would be an unnecessary risk.
To everyone else:
If you want government-run health care, move to canada. I’ll happily pay for my care while you grace the waiting lists with your presence.
You should stop paying attention to the lies the media is telling you. One of my professors is a Canadian citizen. He goes back to Canada for /all/ his health needs. And NEVER waits in line. Long lines and waiting lists are bull shit and you are a sheep for believing it.
In Canada your wait-time depends VERY much on where in Canada you happen to live. If you’re anywhere west of Quebec, no problem… east of Quebec is a very different story.
I ran a therapy clinic in Fl for a group of orthopods. Over 50% of their business was made up of Canadians who couldn’t get their joints replaced in Canada b/c of the waiting lists. As a result, they would snow bird in Fl and have the surgery there. Every system has flaws. You have to decide which flaws you are willing to accept.
The problem with your analogy, Mike, is that neither you nor anyone else has come up with a bus stop to steer the little ol’ lady towards: What do the people who can’t get insurance do? You can’t merely say that’s up to them individually because it’s becoming such an epidemic that it’s impacting the entire healthcare system.
Funny I should stumble upon this article today.
I just got a letter in the mail from my company’s new
health providers/insurance provider… MetLife.
I got denied because of my height to weight ratio.
My company switched carriers, now suddenly I have no insurance?
WTF? what kind of recourse is there?
If you work for a company with a group plan, you can’t be denied, to the best of my understanding. You should go to your HR department and find out what they intend to do for you…
Mari is right. That’s covered by ERISA (generally if your company has 20 or more employees). If so, then you are not being treated fairly. Here’s what the law states:
§1182(a)(1). In eligibility to enroll. In general. Subject to paragraph (2), a group health plan, and a health insurer offering group health insurance coverage in connection with a group health plan, may not establish rules for eligibility (including continued eligibility) of any individual to enroll under the terms of the plan based on any of the following health status-related factors in relation to the individual or a dependent of the individual:
(A) Health status. (B) Medical condition (including both physical and mental illnesses). (C) Claims experience. (D) Receipt of health care. (E) Medical history. (F) Genetic information. (G) Evidence of insurability (including conditions arising out of acts of domestic violence). (H) Disability.
You can read the rest of the code — and you should — at this link.
It is always good to hear the facts as opposed to opinions. For some people who are having trouble getting insurance, this is the only course of action at this point…get a job with a larger company that offers health insurance as a benefit.
I would like to see a partnership between individual health insurance providers and the government. There is no question that the present system is broken.
I was told my health issues were stress related and there is nothing to do. Lost everything-house,job, insurance, 401k and lawyers won’t touch it cause ‘there is no diagnosis’. Just wait until genetic profiling enters the picture and millions will be denied coverage for ‘pre-existing predisposition’ of a disease while they have taken your money all the way right up to that determination!
(imaginary but very possible situation) Sorry dude, looks like that hit and run driver did quite a number on you, but we can’t fix you up even though it’s an easy job because you’re too fat to be able to pay for it… Great. The insurance companies say that if you were less fat you could have outrun that car and not been hurt. Too bad you’ll never use a treadmill again, better luck next time. (/imaginary)
I hate the insurance scam that we allow to continue in the USA.
Yup… had this happen to me a few years ago. Blue Cross denied me for a high BMI, then offered me coverage that was 3x as high as what I had originally applied for. All blood tests come back well within normal range, no other health issues that they would need to worry about. They simply uused my weight as a way to discriminate.
I’m 6′3″, and was denied health insurance about four months ago for being too heavy. They stated that I’d need to be under 250lbs for a documented (by a doctor) period of six months before they’d consider me. Mind you, I may have a healthy beer gut at 255lbs, most of that weight is from weight training. The insurance company didn’t give a rat crap though, and wouldn’t even consider a doctor’s admission that I was in perfectly healthy shape.
i live in ma and by law they can’t check prior conditions and if they do, it doesn’t matter because you can’t be denied anyway. The problem is yours to take to your legislature (in your state) and pass new laws.
Plus, next year we’ll have universal health insurance. That’s right, everyone in ma will have insurance.
Time to move to Canada. Free health care for all!!
And who pays the taxes to provide the “FREE” system? You better learn some economics.
Actually, Sicko makes a lot of bogus claims. All the health care systems he praises have massive problems. Especially Cuba. The hospital he showed is reserved for party elite and visiting foreigners. Real Cuban hospitals have no supplies and lots of cockroaches.
Our system has a lot of flaws. But England started denying health care to smokers and overweight people in some cases. They seem to be planning to do than as a policy but they are testing the waters.
You can get health care if you are overweight here. And you can get insurance. Our system is flawed, but e also have more choices which is why many Canadians come here for their health needs even though it’s “free” in Canada.
Note: Canada’s HealthCare system is one of the best in the world, and it’s free! Also to note is that you *can* get Private Health Insurance as well, which can provide with you added benefits such as lessening the cost of a private room, prescription medications, etc. - For all you crazy right-wing jerks posting here: learn before you type for once.
What else can I get “Free” in Canada? Who ends up paying the bill? And if you say the government, I don’t know of any government that is maling something that turns a profit, or even breaks even.
Very few people who are 6′ 260 lbs are considered to be in “good shape”. Fat people are a higher risk, bottom line, and have to pay for it. I do think BMI is an antiquated way to guage health, being that many people these days do have more muscle mass, but it sounds like you are just fat. Lose some weight and it wont be a problem.
Easy to say if you don’t have issues that prevent you from loosing weight. Like I dunno… a screwed up back, or perhaps you are just poor and can’t afford decent food (and yes that is an issue) and stuck in a chair for minimum wage. Loosing weight sounds easy, but it isn’t. Get over your self. “Just loose the weight!” Why don’t we fatten you up for a year and you can see how easy it is.
I’m with you JG. Or, in my case, I was born fat and was fat my whole life then had to start on antipsychotic medications which caused me to balloon even more — over 20 pounds a month for months at a time. How’s that helping my weight? They sure help my mind, but they raise my risk of diabetes and everything else. I just had knee surgery about 6 weeks ago, and thankfully I didn’t have to tell the orthopedist, “YOU take those 54 different medications for six months and see how much weight you gain.” (I had been on 54 different meds in the 6 months before my surgery. At least half of them cause weight gain.)
Added Note: I don’t know who you claim to know who is actually a CANADIAN (not an American living in Canada) that has gone down south for their HealthCare, because I don’t know a single one. Now, coming from a previously working-class family, and having just started my own middle-class family, I know a lot of non-rich people, and none of us are moronic enough to do that. Unless you’re born into money here, and want what you want now, and don’t care about the price… Why would you go there? Our system clearly takes care of those who need help urgently the fastest. I will admit that we make people with stuffy-noses wait a few hours to see a doctor, but the person who’s bleeding internally, and might die is slightly more important than you, sorry.
Uh, for starters, how about one of your left wing politicians
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/20070914
I could provide plenty more embarrassing examples. Or tons of data on how the Canada’s system is failing. But whatever.
You know, it really irks me sometimes at the “woe is me” culture and the “we are going to hell in a handbasket” culture that we live in today. Sicko, like all of Moore’s films, is biased and strongly so to one side. He has a point, picks a polarizing issue and then beats it to death and crams in down your throat with emotion rather than logic. Universal Health Care is a terrible, terrible idea. You don’t think so? Check out England and how incredibly inefficient that system runs. And it’s supposed to be a kind of model for UHC. Ha, what a crock. I know whereof I speak. I went to school at Oxford University in England. Both of my parents are doctors here in the States. I own a Healthcare Consulting company. The BMI from this article is NOT automatically a decline. I know of quite a few companies that would provide health insurance to you. Health Insurance is a necessity, yes, but so is being healthy. Why should I an an insurance company insure you at the risk of losing lots of money when you are deliberately unhealthy. Don’t tell me you are not. You may exercise and the like, but the reality is that more weight you put on your frame, the more likely that frame will collapse or have any of a number of structural problems. Go run a marathon. I’ve run several. I am naturally overweight with a very slow metabolism. Go burn calories. Get off your arse. Eat healthy, whole grains, nuts, vitamins, protein, etc. You may not like to look at your situation objectively, but the fact remains is that you are statistically more likely to have a major health problem sooner. Change that. And if you cannot, then there are state plans that must accept you if your are declined privately. You will pay a lot (500-900 per individual/month), but you will be covered. All states have some kind of plan like this for people who are denied. Good plan, expensive…but you are unhealthy and as a larger risk factor, to be insured, you gotta pay for it, even with a state subsidy (which to me is suboptimal macroeconomically, but its far better than UHC)
Bottom line: Make healthy lifestyle choices. Grow a pair and get motivated to act and live healthy. Don’t realy on the government to provide an inefficient system because you are too weak to turn your body into a healthy, more efficient machine.
Look! **points upward** There’s one of those snot-nose mommy-and-daddy-gave-me-the-money-to-do-whatever-I-want kids now, bitching his heart out about a system which hurts the majority (especially poorer people), and gives him more money. Who would’ve expected someone who owns a Healthcare Consulting company to be supportive of a system which effectively removes their company from the billing-cycle of the health care industry? Certainly not me…
To be fair, it is all about statistics. With private medical care - like any insurance company is a business and has to be run as such. A business is out to make a profit.
When deciding who should get medical insurance, they look at the likelihood and size of future claims given your current state of health. They determine this based on past experience - ie what were the historic claim sizes of other people with similar BMI’s. They can then calculate your premium.
If you are high risk, your premium should be high. They might have a policy of not accepting clients that are too risky.
They cannot be blamed for trying to run a business and make a profit. Especially if its private healthcare.
Canadaman,
I know a lot of Canadians. Most complain about the Canadian health care system. Which is running out of money, BTW.
You have to wait incredibly long times for major operations. Sometimes years.
One o your own liberal politicians went to the US for health care:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/20070914
More here.
http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/09/06/canadian-health-care-another-day-another-failure/
Fatman,
If someone denied you medical insurance, there’s plenty of others who will take your business.
Graham, how big are you? How much weight can you carry? What do you do for a living? Luckily, I work for a company that has insurance through Cigna who will provide for anyone. I’m 6′1 260 and damn near all muscle. I run every day, I weight lift, along with doing my labor intensive job. I play with my 3 kids every chance I get and I cook dinner, no fastfood in this house. My BMI has me at Obese, but I’m not. My doctor even commends me on my health. Now, you tell me, would you turn me down for Health insurance bc of my BMI?
Canadaman,
I know plenty of “real” Canadians who live there or live here. They all bitch about the system in Canada which makes you wait years for important operations, which often refers people to the US for health care because the doctors there can’t handle it, as in the case of a liberal party politician who came here in September:
“Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.
Stronach’s spokesman, Greg MacEachern, told the Toronto Star that the MP for Newmarket-Aurora had a “later-stage” operation in the U.S. after a Toronto doctor referred her. ”
site ctv.ca
There are many more like her. So much for your system.
Fatties cost more to fix, and statistically are less concerned about their health ignoring warnings from doctors etc costing them even more money. If you care about your health so much try walking into a gym sometime.
My Mom and Dad provided for me well, paying for my college education, no small feat, to be sure. But, everything else I have gotten on my own. I started a lawn care service when I was 12, a painting and remodeling company when I was 17 and now this Healthcare thing. I come from Chicago and my mentality has been shaped a great deal by the superior competitive instincts of men like Michael Jordan and Vince Lombardi. You grew up in the slums? Work hard, make it out. You live on welfare, or have a lot of kids and can’t afford anything? Buckle up, learn to save and invest. This latter part is particularly important, as compounding is what Einstein called the most powerful force in the world. Why? Because investing, a la compounding, allows for the systematic creation of wealth for people who previously had none. Study economic history. There will always be haves and have nots. The different today is that we have an economic system that allows for the have nots to move up the social ladder. Now, it does not work in every case, to be sure, but this system is better than fiefdoms in the feudal ages.
As far as the degradation of my comment based upon my position with my company, I quote Wittgenstein, “Whereof one does not know, thereof one must remain silent.” My healthcare company is predicated upon brining better patient care to hospitals in rural america that hardly have a pot to piss in. Board certified doctors at hospitals that are financially more secure equates to improved standards of patient care. In an incredibly oversimplified way, that is the point of what I do, helping people in rural America get better care. So please, spare me the rich get richer diatribe. I am young, newly married, with my firstborn on the way. And no, I don’t have health insurance. I dilly dallied when I got back from England on getting health insurance and now my wife is pregnant and I can’t get insurance until after she delivers. I am not whining and crying about it. I’m in the same f*cking position the guy in this article is. I simply work harder, in case something catastrophic does happen, I have the foundations in place from which to absorb the blow. I am working to get mine. I suggest you get off your “woe if is me” horse and do the same.
As far as physical maladies go, I indeed understand the difficulties that presents. Sometimes they are exacerbated by being overweight, and sometimes being overweight is caused by the malady itself. I will not speak to that, how to deal with that situation is up to the disabled and their doctors/dieticians/etc.
As far as the “put some weight on for a year” and then see how I feel thing, again, I refer you to Wittgenstein. I was extremely fat as a little kid, obese for sure. But, in the sixth grade I started a running program that I continue to this day. There was a brief period during my first few terms in school that I got lazy and gained about 50 lbs. I was smoking, drinking, carousing, etc. I was unhealthy, could barely walk a block, lol. What did I do? Same as in sixth grade, get off my butt and take a workout program one step at a time. It’s difficult to have the mental toughness to eat right (and I mean truly eat right, counting every calorie that goes into my mouth) and work out. It takes discipline and self-sacrifice. But people feeding off the governments tit, or pining to do so at the first available opportunity, wouldn’t understand too much about that, would they?