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January 17, 2017 9 Comments

My health insurance denial letters. Past or future?

Most writers have a stack of rejection letters, but I keep a stack of health insurance application denial letters (a.k.a. piss-off-and-die letters). If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, insurance companies will be sending out thousands of these things every year to people like me. If you don’t understand why repealing ObamaCare will be bad for so many people, here’s some proof in JPG format.

Here’s the letter I got in 2009 when I’d started my own web development business, adding one job to the economy. I was not rewarded for this when it came to my health care.

Unicare denial letter 2009

The thing I find most ridiculous about this letter is that the head injury they mentioned I sustained as a child was this time my brother whacked me in the head with a flashlight. It hurt, but I didn’t get a concussion or a fracture or anything. I only mentioned it to my headache doctor because they spent an hour getting a full medical history and insisted I mention any time I might have been hit in the head. Also, the depression was caused by the unrelenting headache, so it felt like I was getting dinged twice for the same thing. I also love the part where they basically say, “You’re so fat, we’d have to charge you 20% more,” particularly since I was within 20 pounds of my lowest weight at that time. I was eating healthy and exercising regularly but my BMI still counted me as overweight, so none of that mattered.

Here’s the denial letter I got in 2010, which I needed to qualify for the North Carolina Inclusive Health Insurance program that covered high-risk individuals like me before the ACA existed. I knew I would get denied, but still had to spend an hour on the phone with a representative reviewing every medication my headache doctor had thrown at me in the last two years so I could get this letter for my application.

Aetna denial letter 2010

At this point I’d gained some more weight, so now my obesity disqualified me completely for coverage, though the headache stuff sure didn’t help either. As for the HIPAA eligibility thing they mention, the details on that get kinda boring (unlike all the other fascinating parts of health insurance law), but basically I never had to go that route because North Carolina had a high-risk pool I qualified for. And if I had been forced to do the HIPAA eligibility thing, I think there might have been a one or two month gap in my insurance, and I’m not sure if there were limits on premium prices or minimum benefit requirements. No one goes out of their way to tell you about any of that either, so if you missed the 63 day window to apply you were screwed. Plus, all that only applies to you if you were previously on a group plan. In either case, without the ACA I would not have been able to move out of the state of North Carolina unless I got a job elsewhere that provided me group health insurance. Or married someone with insurance, I guess. Not a great situation.

I also had a denial letter from 2003 or 2004 when I applied for individual insurance when I got my first job as a contractor. However I shredded that last year before my move along with some other personal papers so no one would break into my crate and steal my identity. It was 13 years old and I thought we were done with this shit, so it was enjoyable to shred that paper piece of misery. Now I wish I’d taken a photo of it, just for posterity.

The ACA made it illegal to deny people because of pre-existing conditions. To receive each of these denial letters, I had to fill out applications at least 15 pages long because the health insurance companies wanted a full medical history so they could weed out people like me. Now that the ACA exists, my last application was only 4 pages long.

So, that’s what my past looks like. And that’s what my future looks like if the ACA is repealed. If this bothers you even a little bit, please call your representative and let them know. Calls are given more weight than emails. You can find your congressperson here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ And your senators are listed here: http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

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Leave a Comment (9) Read more about: aca, aetna, affordable care act, health insurance, obamacare, unicare

Jennette Fulda is the author of:

Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn't Go Away

"Smart, unflinchingly honest, and laugh-out-loud funny."

- Lisa Genova, New York Times best-selling author of Still Alice

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Comments

  1. Merry says

    January 19, 2017 at 11:09 am

    My representatives think the same way that I do. I would like to call a few representatives from /other/ states, but I don’t think they would listen to me. There was a article in the news that Republicans are avoiding Town Hall meetings because they don’t want people to discuss ACA with them.

    Reply
    • Jennifer Liepin says

      January 28, 2017 at 5:45 pm

      @Merry – keep calling, petitioning, and writing! Don’t give up the fight.

      Reply
  2. Melissa says

    January 20, 2017 at 8:57 am

    I’m scared as well. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in September of 2015. Thankfully, because of the ACA I was able to enroll with my husband’s insurance plan, and have been taking medication that is helping slow down the progression of this shit disease, hopefully in perpetuity. I am hoping with all of my being that this fool does not destroy all the good that has been accomplished for so many people.

    Reply
    • Jennifer Liepin says

      January 28, 2017 at 5:45 pm

      @Melissa – so important for people to share the limitations they will face if ACA is repealed.

      Reply
  3. Jennifer Liepin says

    January 28, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    Thank you for posting this. This sheds some light for those who want Obamacare repealed, but haven’t thought of the limitations this will put on certain groups of people.

    Reply
  4. momtaxijulie says

    February 6, 2017 at 1:08 pm

    Yeah pretty much no one in my family would be able to get insurance if it wasn’t through my job. My daughter got turned down once when she was a teenager because the doctor has prescribed some cream for her acne. Talk about insane.

    Reply
  5. yas says

    February 21, 2017 at 11:19 pm

    This sucks so much.
    I grew up with health insurance hard wired into our lives, and your weight loss blog was the first time I read about someone having to *pay* for a surgery that was not cosmetic. It seemed crazy then, and it seems even crazier now.
    I have no clue what to wish for now, except that the next 3 years and 11 months pass uneventfully, which I somehow cannot imagine.

    It’s amazing to see that you and several other US citizens whose blogs or facebook posts I read are becoming more involved in protests and politics. I’m super glad the people whose thoughts I choose to read are not all sticking their heads in the sand, congratulating themselves on not being the first to be attacked.

    I hope you can keep your insurance, and that many other things we fear will also not happen.

    Hopefully you’ll keep posting here – your unique perspective on life in the USA is much appreciated.

    Longtime lurker momentarily de-lurking to tell you you’re awesome and you reach people by writing your blog.

    Reply
    • Jennette Fulda says

      February 26, 2017 at 1:58 pm

      Thanks for your kind comment and for delurking. In an ironic twist, I tripped in my living room a week and a half ago and broke my left arm. I had to have surgery and I’ve been recovering ever since. Typing one-handed is slowing me down, but I promise to post again when I am physically able to.

      Reply
      • yas says

        March 7, 2017 at 9:45 pm

        Awww, get well!

        Reply

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Jennette Fulda tells stories to the Internet about her life as a smartass, writer, chronic headache sufferer, (former?) weight-loss inspiration, and seemingly nice person (who is silently judging you). You can contact her if you promise to be nice.

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