Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Getting Life Insurance With A Diagnosis Of Celiac

shelby1

By shelby1
in Coping with Celiac Disease

Recommended Posts

shelby1 Newbie
shelby1
Posted

My 9mo may have celiac. Right now he is on a gluten free trial and doing wonderfully.

If his diarrhea returns when I reintroduce gluten, should I just forgo the blood testing and keep him gluten free?

I am concerned for later in his life with a confirmed diagnosis and his ability to get health and life insurance, etc.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


dlp252 Apprentice
dlp252
Posted

Yeah, that's a tough one...it really depends on how much you (or family, etc.) needs that diagnosis. Some family members have a hard time being strict enough if there isn't a firm diagnosis.

I don't have one, but I too saw improvement after going gluten/casein free and that's enough for me. Fortunately my friends and family also accept it and are very careful when I eat at their houses, etc.

On the insurance issue...I obviously don't have a problem yet, other than my insurance company has questioned a couple of things, but so far no problem with coverage. However, I work in an office with 4 other gluten intolerant people and two of those are diagnosed Celiac. One of them told me that she was having problems with insurance coverage. I don't know what kind of problems as we didn't have time to talk and I rarely see her, but she did mention it, so I think it does exist.

JennyC Enthusiast
JennyC
Posted

Yeah, today I started worrying about the same thing. My son has a very high tTG, and the appointment with the ped. gastro. hasn't come yet. I'm a college student, and have purchased Regence BlueCross BlueShield health insurance. I am going to be looking for a temporary job that will most likely offer health insurance, but today it occurred to me that I should keep the private insurance that I already have even if offered other insurance by a future employer. I'm afraid that if I need private health insurance for him again that he will be denied. Can employer health insurance deny people with chronic health conditions? At what point is the Celiac diagnosis passed onto the insurance company?

Phyllis28 Apprentice
Phyllis28
Posted

One other consideration for children is whether they may require special accomodations in school. A doctor would need to provide a letter so the school is required to adhere to any special accomodations that your child may need.

Jo.R Contributor
Jo.R
Posted

Can employer health insurance deny people with chronic health conditions? At what point is the Celiac diagnosis passed onto the insurance company?

Jo.R Contributor
Jo.R
Posted

Hold on, don't take my word for it :( . I haven't workrd in HR for 7 yrs, and laws change. I think I have it right, but please double check.

debmidge Rising Star
debmidge
Posted

Metlife wrote a life policy for my husband last year and we were upfront about it. They gave him rates for a healthy person (not high risk). They did not shy away from celiac disease.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


Guhlia Rising Star
Guhlia
Posted

We were unable to get life insurance for my daughter because she was diagnosed with acid reflux... Insurance companies can be very picky. Ridiculous, I know...

NoGluGirl Contributor
NoGluGirl
Posted
We were unable to get life insurance for my daughter because she was diagnosed with acid reflux... Insurance companies can be very picky. Ridiculous, I know...

Dear Guhlia,

I called about health insurance some months ago. They told me I would have to pay extra because of reflux. That makes me so angry. These companies screw everyone! I hear BlueCross Blue Shield and Anthem deny practically every claim, no matter how legitimate. Even worse is the fact that in the U.S. just because the general public is richer than other countries, they charge us 60 percent more for meds! Australia only pays $17 for Prilosec, while we may pay $60! When you have insurance, they automatically are allowed to charge more for doctor's visits as well as medications. Generics are even jacked up to a ton more than they originally are. They charge people with insurance more just because they can! One of my mother's meds is $70! When I had insurance and took Prevacid twice a day, I had to pay $300 for a month's supply. Now I take Prilosec OTC instead. It is about $40 a month now.

Sincerely,

NoGluGirl

shelby1 Newbie
shelby1
Posted
  • Author

Thank you for all of your replies. Lots of valid points were shared.

I'm guessing some insurances are more educated than others on the disease. I also agree that many are really out to screw you as someone already pointed out.

It's a shame that we even have to worry about this stuff, isn't it?

:angry:

Thanks again!

Guhlia Rising Star
Guhlia
Posted
Dear Guhlia,

I called about health insurance some months ago. They told me I would have to pay extra because of reflux. That makes me so angry. These companies screw everyone! I hear BlueCross Blue Shield and Anthem deny practically every claim, no matter how legitimate. Even worse is the fact that in the U.S. just because the general public is richer than other countries, they charge us 60 percent more for meds! Australia only pays $17 for Prilosec, while we may pay $60! When you have insurance, they automatically are allowed to charge more for doctor's visits as well as medications. Generics are even jacked up to a ton more than they originally are. They charge people with insurance more just because they can! One of my mother's meds is $70! When I had insurance and took Prevacid twice a day, I had to pay $300 for a month's supply. Now I take Prilosec OTC instead. It is about $40 a month now.

Sincerely,

NoGluGirl

Their reasoning to me for denying tori was that those with acid reflux are found to have a higher risk of esophageal cancer. I think it's ridiculous. With life insurance for a newborn they wouldn't have lost any money even if she did die at 50 of cancer.

I was denied health insurance by Highmark Blue Shield. This was without Celiac on my charts and I have no other known health issues other than ADD. What possible future risks could that cause? They wouldn't even insure me with inflated premiums! Try American Medical. It's not great insurance, but it's WAY better than nothing. They insured my hubby with health issues and my daughter and they're still paying less than me. They won't cover maternity stuff though. Whew, thank goodness I went with Aetna.

kbtoyssni Contributor
kbtoyssni
Posted

The whole health insurance thing annoys me so much. I haven't had any problems, but now that I'm (self)diagnosed and gluten-free, I am sooooo much healthier than I was before. If I could give an insurance company my personal statistics on how many doctors visits I've had pre and post diagnosis, they should be able to see that I'm about ten times cheaper now than I was before. Long-term I've also decreased my risk for health complications so over the course of my lifetime I'm probably going to save them thousands if not millions.

VioletBlue Contributor
VioletBlue
Posted

I'll preface this by saying I haven't sold health home or auto insurance for four years, so I'm a little out of date. If it's group health insurance through your employer they cannot turn you down for the group plan. That has not changed. They can't turn your dependents down either. When they agreed to insure the company, they agreed to insure all qualified employees as a group, not individuals. They can't pick and choose within that group. HOWEVER, you have to make sure when you apply for that insurance that you meet their deadlines and follow their requests to the T. I worked for a company years ago where the insurer denied a new hire because they said she had submitted her application 2 days late. They based that on her hire date and not her start date if I remember right. Coincidentally she was diabetic and wore an insulin pump ;) The Exec Director got so PO'd about it we switched health care providers.

When it comes to giving a life or health insurance company info on you, try not to scare them. If you tell them you are gluten intolerant some may not make the jump to Celiac Disease and shrug it off. The people who decide the fate of your application are not medically qualified and they work off risk charts and data bases and computer programs, not actual medical knowledge. If you use the phrase Celiac Disease that might raise more red flags than gluten intolerance. It just sounds scarier and may cause them to dig around in your medical history. Stupid but true. You are not lying by saying you were diagnosed with gluten intolerance, and if they choose to track down your medical history it will back you up. Be honest, but try and provide information without elaboration. If you apply for insurance in person with an agent remember that agent is not your friend. They're required by law and by contract to pass on anything you tell them or even suspicious questions you ask to their employer so the insurer can adequately asses the risk.

violet

NoGluGirl Contributor
NoGluGirl
Posted

Dear Guhlia,

Thanks for the tip. I will keep American Medical in mind. So many of these plans have such high premiums, no one can afford them. Even people with high paying jobs barely can afford them. It really is rediculous. This whole scenario is insane! :o

Dear Violet,

I do not trust insurance companies. They screw you every chance they get. So many people I know are denied claims that should never be questioned. My parents have been trying to find some plan they could afford to help cover my medical costs. I need a lot of testing, but cannot afford any of it. Even worse, the doctors I had before most of them just said I was nuts. Like most Celiacs, I was doped on everything known to man, and was accused of having eating disorders, IBS, etc. That will be a problem not only with other doctors you see in the future, but with the insurance company.

Sincerely,

NoGluGirl

pooter Newbie
pooter
Posted

I work right next to the insurance billing dept. and I get to hear them arguing all day with the insurance companies about them denying valid claims over stupid reasons. I work in the insurance verification dept. and they are always very careful to tell me that verification of coverage is not guaranteeing that they will approve a claim. They are scum in my humble opinion. I don't have health insurance other than temporary medicaid, which I'm about to lose. I was denied coverage after my diagnosis of celiac. I'm healthier now than I was before when I was covered by insurance, so it's idiotic to me. I already had my life insurance policy in place before the dx, so that's a good thing at least. I'm planning to move to another state by the end of the year, so here's hoping I can find a job with great benefits so that I won't have to worry about this anymore.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      127,887
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Old Soul Elder
    Newest Member
    Old Soul Elder
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121k
    • Total Posts
      70.5k
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • plumbago
      Anyone else with very high HDL?

      By plumbago · Posted

      Yes, well, that's what we have been told, probably ever since the different types of cholesterol were identified. It's what most of our primary care providers are still telling us, it's what the commercials tell us. But researchers (up until now at any rate) have been learning a great deal about HDL. Nevertheless, the universe of what we still don't know about HDL is vast. And since I can sustain only a 35% level of understanding when I hear lectures on HDL, I will have to nutshell my layperson's understanding, which is that at this time, it's possible or likely that HDL-C levels are best understood as U-shaped, that there's a sweet spot right there in the dip of the "U" and anything before or after is not ideal. This is why I said what I did earlier about the "good" and the "bad" being oversimplifications. The research has long since moved on. There's a lot of talk about how the focus should be on functionality, that you want to make sure that all that HDL is performing how it should be. And now, that's it, I've exhausted my ability to explain my understanding of HDL!
    • Nicbent35
      3 year old gluten intolerance?

      By Nicbent35 · Posted

      Hi, I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter..I would say she has had tantrums since even before she was a year old. Challenging but not extreme. Lately, her behavior had gotten extreme. Just so angry, yelling mean hateful things, completely defiant, was causing a lot of disruption in our house, I felt like I had lost the little girl I knew, we were baffled.   Something just didn’t seem right to me, I have been researching and read about how gluten can sometimes affect kids behavior. I took her off gluten a week ago tomorrow. The next couple days after I took her off gluten the days were much easier. About 4 days in she had one of the worst days I’ve seen her have tho. I kept on with it tho and the past two days she has been angelic. Is this common that if it is gluten that she could still have a bad day like that a few days after taking her off of it? Should I try to reintroduce it at some point to see if it’s really a gluten intolerance? I’m not gonna lie, if she continues with the great behavior she’s had the past couple days I will probably be scared to reintroduce it but don’t want her to have to avoid gluten if it’s not necessary. Anyone have advice? 
    • trents
      Anyone else with very high HDL?

      By trents · Posted

      But HDL is considered to be the "good" cholesterol, right?
    • plumbago
      Anyone else with very high HDL?

      By plumbago · Posted

      Since some time between 2010 and 2014, my HDL-C has been going up and you might even say elevated. The last time I could find in my records that my HDL was normal was in 2014 when it was 67. Last week, it was 101, and it’s been 88 and above since about 2015. A significant life event happened in 2010 when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and in May of that year began a gluten free diet. An informal perusal of a previously posted topic on HDL on this forum shows that a lot of members responding had high normal or high levels of HDL, so it doesn’t seem to be that unusual. But because my HDL numbers have been so high for so long, I am now officially concerned enough that I will probably reach out to a cardiologist who specializes in lipids. I would like to know if I should have a genetic test, as a specific genetic mutation can be one reason for high HDL numbers. I will also ask if he/she thinks a cardiac work up including a coronary artery calcium score should be considered. I think by now most of us are done with the ridiculous good and bad cholesterol labels; the amount of what we don’t know about HDL is quite large. For me my questions include is it a matter of production or an inability to clear HDL, and are the high levels having an effect on my vasculature (or a result of a less than optimal vasculature)? My last TSH level was normal, so it's likely not a thyroid issue. I also take B12 regularly. I’ve read that niacin can cause HDL levels to go up, but B12 is not niacin, and I could find no definitive link between robust B12 supplementation and abnormally high HDL levels. Any input is appreciated! Plumbago
    • Scott Adams
      Hidden Gluten in distilled vinegar

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      @Mynx, how long have you been gluten-free? I ask because many newly diagnosed celiacs react to many things, and often think their reactions are caused by gluten, when in fact, they are really caused by a combination of a sensitive gut due to damage, as well as additional food intolerance/leaky gut issues to other foods which may be temporary until their villi heal.
×
×
  • Create New...