Comments on: SP Round Table: Fat baby denied health insurance

By: Jessikanesis

Jessikanesis — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:55:36 +0000

Elizabeth, you just sent me into swearing fits.

Well, YOU didn’t, but that story did.

Another thing that pisses me off is that the people being interviewed in this article are all claiming that the decision to deny this girl health insurance is insane, because the chances that she contracted HIV are very low. Everyone seems to operate under the assumption that if she did, in fact, have HIV, then denying her coverage would be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

Because, ew, yucky… who wants to help sick people? Especially sexually assaulted sick people!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:29:31 +0000

Dear insurance companies, This was not what we had in mind.

This wasn't either.

By: Arwen

Arwen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:09:15 +0000

@tinfoil hattie:

OMG. $1206/MONTH? The words “fuck them very much” come to mind.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:25:18 +0000

My daughter was breastfed and gained a pound a week until she was 3 months old. She doubled her weight in 2 months. She was completely off the growth chart at her checkup.

Our pediatrician laughed and said, “I see this a lot in breastfed babies. It just means that what she’s drinking is easier for her to digest and she’s getting lots of good nutrition.”

When I read this story, I thought “way to penalize breastfed babies!!!”

There are so many things wrong with health care in America… but this has got to be one of the worst things. No child in our country should be uninsured for ANY reason, let alone for being an infant who’s eating well.

By: Anita

Anita — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:57:09 +0000

There’s a line in there about how if the girl got treatment and improved, they might cover her. Which is such a presumption of the resources available I’m boggling. I’m not sure what treatment costs would be for “underweight”, nor am I sure that there’s a “fix”, assuming the girl’s naturally small.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:33:36 +0000

Dear insurance companies, This was not what we had in mind.

By: Sweet Machine

Sweet Machine — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:04:30 +0000

Sally, I fail to see how what you just describes it not a problem of the health insurance industry. Who do you think makes the rules for policies, elves?

By: Sally

Sally — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:57:05 +0000

The problem here is not the health insurance industry. It’s the type of policy they have. Individual policies can deny pretty much anything they believe will cost them monies. This type of insurance, rather insure healthy people, the ones who have insurance for “just in case,” than people with possible conditions. That’s how thay make money.

By: Dw3t-Hthr

Dw3t-Hthr — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:49:25 +0000

I first saw this story right after my daughter’s two month well-baby (which we had at ten weeks rather than eight, I think). Promptly sent the link out to my family, because it was a major WTF.

She weighed fourteen and a half pounds, up in those high-nineties percentiles for weight. (Also 24″ length, high nineties percentiles in height.) Every time we bring her in, the pediatrician makes thrilled burbly noises about how heavy she is and tells us she looks fantastic.

Being in the position of someone with an infant – especially one who’s up there on the charts – right now, the story just broke my goddamn head.

By: Jessikanesis

Jessikanesis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:55:26 +0000

Did anybody else see Prof. Amy Farrell on Colbert last night? They talked about this, and also fat-related legislation. Colbert didn’t seem to take it seriously (as that’s his shtick), but Farrel made some great points I enjoyed.