Denied

My insurance I have now is though Rich's work. It's free for him but really expensive to have me on the plan with him. And stupid expensive to add a baby. So I thought I'd be smart and proactive and research individual health plans. I found one that included maternity coverage and would be a little cheaper for us now and A LOT cheaper if we were to add a baby. So I filled out the paperwork and waited for a response. One of the questions on the application was "Have you ever had any fertility testing done?" So I put on there that some fertility tests had been done at my request after an ectopic pregnancy and no problems were found. I don't want to be accused of insurance fraud or anything so I thought they should know about the ectopic and that I have been seeing an RE. They came back wanting more info concerning my infertility. I had to have the Doc fill out a form and fax it back to them.

My current insurance won't cover fertility treatment but they do cover diagnosis and my RE appt's, just not the treatments. And it has a $3000 deductible so the things it does cover I have to pay out of pocket anyway.I figured the new company was going to come back with some exclusions. That they probably wouldn't pay for any of my RE appts or fertility stuff because no matter what you call it, it's a preexisting condition since I'm already receiving treatment. I thought, at the worst, they might deny me fertility and maternity coverage altogether. I thought we'd have to figure out what we would have to pay out of pocket vs. how much we would save on premiums and decide if we should switch.

Yesterday I got a big packet in the mail from BCBS and I thought, Yay! I'm approved. Now let's just see what the exclusions are. I open it up and read the letter on the top of the packet.

"Thank you for your recent application for individual health insurance. Unfortunately we cannot approve your request for the following reason: Infertility"

Fabulous. The rest of the information in the envelope was brochures for a plan for "high risk pool of medically uninsurable Maryland residents" I'm medically uninsurable? What the hell? I'm in perfect health other than the fact that I haven't had a baby yet. If I hadn't tried to get pregnant I wouldn't have needed to go to the Dr. for anything. I was willing to pay for my fertility stuff on my own. But they flat out denied me. Medically Uninsurable. Ridiculous.

I happened to have snuck a peak at that form the RE sent them the other day. I took the walk from the office to the front desk with my chart REALLY slowly and took a look-see. My official diagnosis is Unexplained Secondary Infertility with Shortened Luteal Phase. In previous conditions he listed - miscarriage at age 24, recent ectopic pregnancy, Unexplained Secondary Infertility greater than 2 years. Future treatment required - Clomid and Monitoring until 8 weeks pregnant. Interesting. Not sure where the 2 years part comes in as I have only been off of birth control for 20 months and seriously trying for a little over a year. Perhaps he thought we had been trying since the first miscarriage? Whatever. What's done is done. Also interesting that he refers to it as 'secondary'. I thought that term was only used if you already had a child. I'm assuming he's considering my first pregnancy as a success fertility-wise even though I lost the baby at 11 weeks. But apparently not the ectopic. Fetus in Uterus means you restart the infertility clock?

It's so aggravating that I'm being denied for Unexplained Infertility. The name says it all. They haven't found anything wrong with me! How can I be penalized for having testing done and trying to up my odds of getting pregnant with some fertility meds? That does not equal illness!

I freakin hate insurance. Of all kinds. Such a waste of money.

8 days until testing.