hey every1, I need your help

I'm new to this message board and have a question pertaining to health insurance. As of December 31st, i will no longer have my GHI health insurance and decided that it would be best for me to apply for insurance with medicaid, but I wanted to know if anyone knows how long it may take before everything gets processed. Did anyone have any difficulties with getting insurance. I figured it would it best to go with medicaid because they cover wls. Does anyone have any suggestions, advice, or comments? Hope to hear from someone very soon

hi Chassidy... Medicaid is a very long drawn out process...NY makes it very difficult. It took my aunt almost 4 months b4 everything was processed...sorry to give you the bad news...but it's not an easy thing good luck and hopefully yours will go thru sooner!

Hi hun... Welcome to the NY board and to our family.....you will find lots of information here.... Is there any reason why you will no longer have GHI??????? Medicad can take some time....before you hear from them....but do you have a doctor that is WLS friendly....and.....have you check to see what surgeon would be taking your coverage....there is alot to consider when changing insurance companies.....I had GHI well still do.....they gave me hell to have WLS but I hung in there and I had surgery.... I wish you the best through out your journey,....If you have any other questions please post them.... Christine

Hey Linda and Christine, thanks for responding. The reason I no longer have GHI is because I am not attending school this semester. So as of December 31st, it will be cancelled. Therefore I decided that getting insurance with Medicaid would be better for me because it covers wls without the hassle. I went to the education seminar for wls and in the packet, which I received, it stated that GHI expects 2 6-month diet plans before approving you, so of course I'm not sticking around for that. But if it'll take 4 months to be approved for Medicaid, then what should i do? Does anyone know of any other possible insurance that I can get approved quickly and covers wls. I know for a fact that the surgeon I'm considering going to does accept Medicaid, but I'm not aware of any others.

If the surgeon you have accepts Medicaid, then you may want to consider that as a reason TO get it... I know that a lot of surgeons DON'T take it.. I would check with the county (or whereever you apply for Medicaid) and see what the specific process is for getting approved for Medicaid - if you've already started down the road for GHI, it's probably similar. Most insurances *do* require documented diet attempts before they will approve WLS, but 'documented' can be a loosely defined term with some (where you can list the different diets you've tried over the years with the results), others will make you either do a medically supervised diet, or as you found with GHI, make you do 2 6-mo documented diets. Whichever insurance you decide, the best of luck to you - ...Nick