washington state?

Hello, I am in the middle of switching insurance carriers right now and all of my options seem to have exclusions on WLS or obesity help in general. I am wondering if anyone here has had experience getting WLS covered in WA state and if so, what was your insurance carrier and what was your plan (thru employer or individual)? I know the state low income health insurance covers WLS but we are not low-income, just a struggling family looking for individual coverage. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I know most companies except Microsoft that has Premera says that it is an exclusion. Exclusions are employer, not insurance company related. Talk to your employer about it and make sure that they are aware that it is a surgery you want and that it is an exclusion. Good Luck

btw there is a washington board, you should post this there also.

MsMountain is right. Here's something else that might help: http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/members/insurers.ph p follow the link, then click on your states...it contains "ratings" of different insurance companies in your state. Bear in mind though, the insurance might be great at covering weight loss surgery if it's part of the policy, but if you have a policy that excludes it...then no matter how good other peoples' experiences are with the company, you're going to come up to a hurdle. I've never heard of anyone getting past a policy exclusion, but the forum leader posted in one of the previous posts that he actually has seen people get coverage despite the exclusion after involving a lawyer...so I guess that's some hope. But if you're right in the middle of selecting insurance policies, it would be a LOT easier if you can find one that doesn't have the exclusion. Make sure you study each plan really carefully.

Thank you. I just found out that medicare covers the surgery in my state. I am sad because I was on medicare for an entire year and did not know this.  Now that we make too much money for medicare and likely will not be back on medicare, all the other insurance policies make it an exclusion. My hubby has hope of working for some of the companies in the area that seem to have good insurance that will cover obesity treatment. (Microsoft, etc.)  But until then it looks like I'm stuck. None of the individual coverages we can afford will cover the surgery. (All have exclusions.) I just am at a loss to understand why the insurance companies put this exclusion in their policies. Don't they know that when you 150 lbs overweight, almost every single trip to the doctor (and there are many) are due to complications relating to obesity. To put in an exclusion on obesity-related treatment is the worst kind of joke. :(