Question:
I was wanting to know if anyone has ever heard

that once you have this kind of surgery that you can NOT get approved for any other kind of insurance saying that this is a pre existing condition?    — teedegee (posted on June 26, 2003)

June 26, 2003
I haven't heard that exactly. But, I am having a bear of a time getting long term disability thru my job because of it. I was told they just don't cover people who have had it because there isn't much long term research on the after effects. Whatever! Have had to jump thru alot of hoops and still working on it. Its been MONTHS!
   — Kris T.

June 26, 2003
As long as you don't have a lag in coverage it is (I think) illegal to say pre-existing... but I don't know if this is all states or what... I do think there are laws to protest you...
   — MF

June 26, 2003
It's not that you won't be approved, but you will get the highest rating if you have had a gastric bybass of any kind. They will consider it pre-existing and any health problems that they can track back to the bypass, they will not cover. At least that is how is it at BlueShield of Idaho.
   — Christi O.

June 27, 2003
Teena, I happen to work for an insurance company and what I see from my experience is that most companies will wave any pre-existing clause they have in your policy as long as you have "contunity of coverage" whice means no lapse in coverage more than 30 days between active policies, if for some reason you know that you are going to have a lapse I would recommed you take a cobra policy with your current carrier until your new plan takes effect.
   — Jenni O.

June 27, 2003
I'm not sure I know what you mean by "any other kind of insurance". Private policies operate under somewhat different rules than group policies do. If you are concerned about group health insurance (the kind you get through your job), then don't worry. The HIPAA law requires that, for the purposes of determining pre-existing condition limitations, you have to be given credit for your time under the previous group policy as long as you haven't had a break in coverage greater than 63 days (not 30 days as suggested by an earlier poster). So, for example, if the new policy has a pre-existing condition limitation that says they won't cover a pre-existing condition until you've been in the plan for a year, and you were covered by a previous plan for at least a year (and were not without coverage inbetween for more than 63 days), the new plan has to cover your pre-exisitng condition. Say you only had nine months under previous plans (you can count back all continuous coverage without a lapse of 63+ days). The new plan would have to give you credit for those nine months, and could impose the pre-existing condition limitation for only the first three months of coverage. If you're concerned about group life insurance, again, you shouldn't have any problems as most group plans take on all comers for these policies as is. Group disability policies may impose a waiting period, but these are usually fairly short (3 to 6 months). If you're concerned about private insurance (health, life, or disability), then the insurer might hold the surgery against you, and either refuse to cover you or rate your premiums higher. That seems ridiculous to me as those of us who have this surgery do it to improve our health, which should make us better insurance risks, but I guess they're worried about unknown future complications. And, if you don't have the surgery, the insurance companies will still count against you as pre-existing all of your co-morbidities that you either have, or may develop without losing the weight (such as diabetes, heart and circulatory problems, lung and breathing problems, arthritis, etc.). So, don't let this point scare you off of surgery. It's a Catch-22 either way.
   — Vespa R.