Soaps.com - MESSAGE BOARDS

Embattled health insurance companies are taking a page from Goldlilocks. Last week, a 4-month-old child was denied insurance for being too heavy (the company has since changed its mind). Now the Web is buzzing about a toddler who was denied coverage for being too small.

On Wednesday morning, "The Today Show" covered the story of 2-year-old Aislin Bates. Though she weighs just 22 pounds (in the third percentile range for kids her age), her doctor has described her as being perfectly healthy, never having been sick with anything more than a cold. Still, United HealthCare didn't buy it, saying that the child didn't meet height and weight standards. So, no insurance for Aislin.

The story has inspired a slew of searches. After the segment aired on NBC, queries on young Aislin surged from zilch into triple digits. United HealthCare is wisely responding to what could be a PR crisis. In an article from Denver's ABC affiliate, a company spokesperson for United HealthCare said the company's height and weight requirements "are based on several medical sources, including the Centers for Disease Control, and are well within industry standards."

Still, Aislin's case, as well as the previous incident of the obese 4-month-old, have highlighted the difficulties some parents face when trying to get coverage for their children. Aislin's father Rob was quoted as saying that even though he doesn't support universal health care, this battle over insuring his daughter has made him want insurance companies to have more "legitimate reasons for denying coverage."

NBC medical expert Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who appeared with the Bates family, was more pointed in her criticism: “This is just so bogus. A pre-existing condition for a child this age is birth, let’s be real..... This is why things have to change."

can you believe this? the ins companies have way too much power

Check out our top five list of recent insurance company abuses:

1. Rape as a pre-existing condition: Women in America have a choice. If they've been raped, they can either go to the emergency room, get the care they need and seek counseling in order to begin the healing process... or they can keep their health insurance.
2. Get sterilized: This is what an insurance company, Golden Rule, told Peggy Robertson, mother of two, after she had a C-section birth. Just keep in mind the fact that over 30% of births in America are performed via C-section.
3. Baby is "too fat": Newborn babies have been denied coverage for being born too large. Today, over 67% of Americans are either overweight or obese. Isn't it nice to see the insurance industry joining the fight to curb obesity at... birth?
4. Baby is "too small": Well you don't want the small babies to feel left out, do you? Even perfectly healthy children, like 2 year-old Aislin Bates, can be denied coverage because an insurer thinks they're "too small."
5. And for everyone else: Just because you're not a woman or baby doesn't mean that the insurance industry has forgotten about you. There are plenty of reasons why you too can be denied care!

wow, i had no idea

A woman who was sexually assaulted took the anti-AIDS drugs her doctor prescribed as a precaution, only to learn that she had made herself virtually uninsurable. This is one of the stories emerging from the Investigative Fund's citizen journalism project on the health insurance industry.

we need to come together as women to put a stop to this[/b

bring this up

There is the woman named Jenny U., whose insurance company cut off her coverage because they decided her kidney donation to her sick daughter counted as a "pre-existing condition." What really matters to insurance companies is saving the $$$ for their own pocketbooks. Private insurance companies have been flooding the mail with flyers and letters to everyone they can. These letters are telling people lies about the healthcare reform. The very envelopes that these letters come in have lies written all over the outside of them. The insurance companies are spending a fortune to keep this reform from passing. That is enough to show that they have a vested interest ($$$$$$) in keeping this from passing. Think of how many Americans could receive healthcare with the monies that private insurance companies are spending on tv adds and mailings to keep the big bucks come to them ALL them.

i am disappointed more posters didn't respond to this thread, i would love to know how anyone could think this is ok, i cannot think of any justification for this, none

My son was a normal 7-lb. 10-oz. baby, but was always five to six pounds under normal weight until he was 20; however, his weight gain followed the normal curve. He was perfectly healthy, and there was never a problem with the insurance. This was exactly the way his father was.

On a more sombre note, a family member who was the owner/operator of a third-generation small family business could not afford the outrageous health insurance premiums for a sole proprietorship. When he discovered he had brain cancer, he shot himself while his wife was out of town, because he was afraid there would be nothing left for his family after medical expenses.

Plain and simple? Are we following the same bill? Plain and simple would be awesome...I respectfully disagree, about it being plain and simple and about it being a vote for big business, especially if I still stand for tort reform and gov regulation changes on insurances. Either way, we'll see soon. Hopefully, maybe, maybe not

You think that we have horror stories with insurance now, wait until the government takes hold of it and starts telling everyone what they can and cannot do....... They need to get a better plan than what they are trying to shove down our throats right now, or you just think you now have trouble..you ain't seen nothing yet. Insurance companies have been pulling this sort of crap for years and years!!