I guess I’ve been lucky in years past to not have to deal too much with insurance and their stupid “rules” but Friday I was initiated quickly into the “I can’t get coverage because I’m fat” club.
My husband called me from work Friday and told me there was a guy offering this great insurance coverage to all their state employees and he needed my height and weight. I told him 5’3″, 280 lbs. He hung up.
A few minutes later, after the sales rep had gone, my hubby called me back and said, “well you didn’t qualify for the heart coverage but you qualified for the all the other stuff (cancer, severe illness, etc…). I said, “oh really, why not?” He said, “because of your weight. He said if you could get down to 220 that you’d qualify.” To that I said, “well let me get right on it.” Then I said, “did they ask if I had hypertension or high blood pressure or diabetes or even high cholestrol?” He said, “no.” Yeah! That surprises me!
So they denied me heart coverage based on a number. They didn’t even ask if I had had heart issues or anything… this denial is based solely on a FREAKIN’ NUMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So yeah, I’m mad! You know what I did because I was so mad? I went out and bought clothes! I bought a new frilly blouse for work and I bought two new dresses. I haven’t worn a dress in a couple of years. I even bought some matching earrings and a necklace. I’m on the lookout for some cool sandals to wear with my new clothes.
Don’t get me wrong, I am upset about the fact that what I weigh caused me to miss out on some good insurance but I’m not beating myself up over it. I’m placing the blame where it should be placed – the insurance company. At first my husband said, “well, you can’t blame them, I mean there are statistics…” I cut him off right there. “What statistics? What statistics have been found that say heart disease is solely based on your weight? What statistics have been done that aren’t skewed because the study was done by a pharmaceutical company trying to make money off of a new heart drug! What statistics show that I will have a heart attack at 280 pounds and not at 220 pounds? Why did they pick 220 pounds instead of 250?” My points hit home with him. I think he finally saw what I’ve been trying to tell him the past year. He ended up being just as angry with the insurance company as I was. tee hee
And people say that there really isn’t weight discrimination? Are they freakin’ insane? Of course there’s weight discrimination! You’re blind if you don’t believe that.
Well it seems that I needed to vent some. Thanks for listening! It felt good, really, really good!
~sas
Angry Gray Rainbows 
Oh yeah, DH and I are going to be going through this this week when we see if we can get life insurance for him. He thinks it may be a problem because he has type 2 diabetes (under control, along with his blood pressure and cholesterol which are normal). He had life insurance when he retired from the Navy and switched it over from active duty to veterans, but seems like about 6 years ago, his ex-wife quit paying the premiums on it without telling him. We didn’t find this out until just this month when he tried to change the beneficiaries from her and one of her sons to me and my son. We called the Veteran’s Administration and they had no record of his life insurance at all. So today, as I was going through some papers, I found an annual statement from a whole life insurance policy he had, dated 1999 and called the number on it (that’s how I found out the policy had lapsed, a letter had been sent stating why, and that nothing had been done). His ex-wife paid all the bills (and didn’t do a very good job of it, they were always behind, and she racked up enormous amounts of credit card debt without telling him), so he didn’t know his policy had lapsed after paying premiums on it for 8 years (and is he ever going to pissed when he gets home from work and I tell him what I learned today).
I managed to get life insurance from the one company in the United States that doesn’t demand a physical or ask what your height and weight are in their application (and I was told by several agents that I contacted when I was looking for life insurance that I would be denied because I’m considered “morbidly obese”). So I’m hoping that the company where I have my life insurance will insure my husband as well, in spite of the fact that he has diabetes and is considered fat, too.
I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about health insurance as well (all of his medical needs are taken care of by the VA for free, 20 years and 20 days in the Navy assured him of that, and I have Medicare, from my disability and age, and TriCare through him). If we had to get health insurance on our own, we would be totally out of luck, no one would insure either of us, simply because of our weights.
Agh… the stupid…. it burnssssssssssssssssssss!! Nevermind that the diet that would take you down to 220 can cause all kinds of health problems. *headdesk*
This makes me so mad! It’s like they will take advantage of whatever pseudo-science or cultural prejudice to deny coverage…. and I feel like I never want to stop smacking these dumbasses. Grrrrrr.
I say BRAVO to you though for not blaming yourself for the ignorance of the insurance company. I wonder if there’s any pressure you and hubby could put on these people to make these folks treat you properly.
[…] covers – hence the title of this post. Case in point, we had a troll comment to Sas’s post about being denied insurance heart coverage because the insurance company doesn’t like her weight that went something like this and […]