Denied Insurance BECAUSE of WLS

My wife and I are both self employed and had been paying for Cobra coverage (BC/BS of Texas) from her last job for health insurance.    We knew at the middle of last year that our Cobra coverage was going to end in April and we also knew that at our weight at that time we were likely going to either be denied coverage or we would pay through the nose when we bought insurance.   Thinking we were being clever we both started the process to have RNY surgery with the hopes of losing weight and getting healthy before the deadline.  I had RNY surgery in December and my wife in March and we are both doing great with absolutely no complications and several of our pre-existing conditions now history.

At the beginning of April we starting calling private insurers such as BC/BS, Humana, Aetna, United Healthcare and several other smaller brands and we were denied each time.  Every single company gave the same exact reason:  We had WLS.  I argued with every single one of them that we were healthier now than we have been in our adult lives, but they all said the same thing "WLS is too new and the long term impacts of having the surgery are not clear, insurance denied."

Does anyone have any recommendations other than to look into the state risk pools or to wait for the new health legislation to take effect?

Wallace

I really want to hear any thoughts people have on this because I'm facing the same thing here soon.

 
After WLS you are considered high-risk and are pretty much insurable for a couple of years.  A high-risk pool or coverage from an employer (I understand not an option).  

The HCR act is new and still unclear.  Just because they can't deny you, doesn't mean that you still won't be in a high risk pool subject to associated cost.  It will just be offered by the insurance companies rather than through the state.

Ironically, it seems to me that my risk was higher before WLS because I was facing so may obesity related diseases.  They are so clueless.

Perhaps it was higher, but it is still high.  Complications from WLS can be quite expensive.  The other thing you need to concern yourself is with WLS coverage for any new policies.  Many open market policies specifically exclude them to different degrees; no new surgery, no fixing, etc.

I was self-pay already.  My current insurance doesn't cover anything to do with it.

Same thing is going to happen with life insurance. :o(