Insurance Battle

Some back ground info. I work for a United Methodist Church (UMC). UMCs are organized into districts, usually city or county areas; and then districts are organized into conferences, which may be part of or even whole states.

As a lay employee of the church, our insurance in managed at the conference level. Our conference uses BC/BS for health insurance; however our conference is self insured and basically dictates the poicy it would like to use to BC/BS.

So, when I began the WLS process three years ago, I was hopeful because I knew BC/BS would cover the proceedure if deemed medically necessary. I jumped through all the hoops, had all the lab work done, a psych evaluation, and filled out the loads of paperwork. All to be denied and to find out that my UM conference had written WLS in as an exclusion in our policy.

It was at that time that I began a two years long letter writing campaign with our conference office to get them to change the policy. I was tenacious in my efforts. I provied them with valid scientic studies, heartfelt case studies, and even my own personal story. because of my efforts, the conference met with BC/BS to discuss the proceedures and new tecnologies. All ending in a vote of 6 to 5 against including the proceedures in our policies.

I was devistated, slipped into a destructive depression, and ate my way into more serious obesity.

This past summer I was diagnosed with diabetes - just another item to add to the list: sleep apnea, hypertension, arthritis, depression, skin condidtions, etc.

By the way, my wife also worked for our church, so we didn't have any options for other insurance and we are not independently wealthy.

Through a "series of unfortunate events" my wife found a new job. Which means we have new insurance. It is more expensive that what we were paying for, but it covers what I need it to. So, I made a new appontment with my Baratric Surgeon for the first of the year and will gladly jump through all the hoops once again.