With all the controversy swirling around the health care reform bill, here is something else to be considered in the mix. Shortly after my celiac diagnosis, our health insurance provider at the time (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) sent us a letter asking if we had supplemental health insurance. We called the insurance company as this was a strange request they’d never sent us before. The insurance giant stated that we probably forgot that they periodically sent us the same letter. We had not forgotten anything and had never gotten such a letter from them in the past, peroid.
After speaking with some people that worked in the insurance industry, and some who used to, everyone agreed this letter might be the insurers attempt to drop my coverage because I had recently been diagnosed with celiac disease. We told the insurance company we didn’t have supplemental coverage and that was the end of it. Maybe we assumed wrong about the meaning of the letter but we’ll never know one way or another.
One of the main issues here is that most insurance companies do not think most people with celiac disease are following the gluten-free diet faithfully. Studies show that up to 60% of patients who are told to go gluten-free continue to eat gluten, so the insurance companies assumptions are understandable. Many of them even mark the charts of celiac patients “pre-cancerous condition”. This is because untreated celiac can lead to several types of cancer, including but not limited to, non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Certianly I don’t know what the answer is regarding health care reform. Health insurance is not the same as health care anyway, but that point seems to be get lost in the discussion at times. It also seems that in this country, you might be better off not having a bonafide celiac diagnosis on your health record. Here is some evidence that this assumption might be correct.
Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune:
When 17-year-old Brianna Rice was diagnosed with celiac disease in February, she had health insurance.She doesn’t now.
In the months that followed her diagnosis, her insurance company, American Community Mutual Insurance, combed through her medical records and ruled that her parents lied on her application last year.
In May, American Community not only canceled her policy, but also rescinded coverage all the way back to the day it started — Nov.
Please take time to read the entire article. At the very least, what is happening to this family is sad and unfortunate. Share your thoughts about the issue in the commments below.
This is amazingly disturbing. I work in the health care industry and have dealt with and worked for insurance companies ad nauseum, and yet this takes me by surprise, and not in a positive way. Calling celiac disease a “precancerous condition” seems ludicrous. I understand that perhaps not everyone would be 100% compliant with a gluten free diet, but it seems unreasonable that people would not make a serious and concerted attempt. It seems that no one with celiac disease has reviewed this policy, or they would certainly understand how the huge benefit of feeling better in so many intestinally-related ways would make people lead a gluten free life. I guess the bottom line is to ALWAYS keep continuous health insurance coverage so celiac can not be considered a “pre-existing condition.”
Unfortunately, I often run accross people that live on Pepto Bismol because they just can’t deal with the hassle of staying gluten-free. And I’ve met several people with doctors that told them to eat a “normal” diet since they had no outward symptoms of celiac. Of course, that eventaully catches up with them and they have no choice but to go gluten-free after getting quite sick with more than there fair share of outward symptoms.
Yes – the lesson is to keep insurance at all times.It’s really ridiculous that insurance companies can not see the bigger picture here. They really don’t understand that having people diagnosed with celiac is better for them as well as the patient.