We knew America was obese but what we didn’t anticipate was that the insurance companies would turn the tables and make bank off of us. What’s even worse is that they aren’t even waiting till we hit our teens; they are doing it when we are babies! This story was shocking and disturbing, a baby in Colorado was deemed obese and denied health insurance.
Rocky Mountain Health Plans determined that Alex Lange(who weighed 17 pounds at 4 months) had a pre-existing condition (obesity) which made him a high risk patient. Alex’s parents were looking for a new insurance company when their current plan raised their rates by 40 percent. Alex was in the 99thpercentile for both height and weight, but his parents were told insurance companies don’t take babies over the 95th percentile. So they denied him coverage (source).
Stories like these make you want to root for federal health care. However, after being in other countries we all know that federal health care can get REALLY scary! Hopefully, stories like this will encourage people to sink their money into insurance companies that not only protect them and their families, but also their best interests.
Adria Ali
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