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During the past 10 years there has been a dramatic upturn in Obesity and overweight adults in America and as you can imagine it has had a serious cost impact on the U.S. healthcare system. While many consumers who are denied health insurance coverage for being overweight or rated with a “fat tax” may feel that they are being jilted by the insurance underwriting system. Fair or not treatment for health issues associated with overweight and obese individuals does have significant reprocussions on the economy and the overall cost of healthcare.

The underwriters use a system for determining your height and weight calculations to determine acceptable ranges. The correlation of the two defines a number called the BMI or ” body mass index” and gives the underwriters an estimate of bodyfat. According to the department of human health services a BMI of 30 is considered obese and 25 to 29.9 is overweight. If your BMI is higher than 43 you will not likely qualify for traditional health insurance coverage. If your BMI is between 29-43, a health insurer may choose to offer you health insurance with a rated up premium. If you have pre-existing health issues in relation to your weight, such as diabetes, hypertension or heart disease, a health insurer may deny you coverage altogether, even if your BMI is within range. In addition to the BMI the belly fat or waist circumference is a good indicator of future health problems associated with excess weight such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Overweight inactive individuals with a propensity to store excess stomach fat will eventually experience insulin resistance, and or other heart health issues. When underwriters review an application and see that an applicant has a combination of these pre-existing conditions a red flag is immediately raised regarding the application. Underwriters have certain risk criteria they use when combining your BMI with other risk factors such as smoking, and the health issues previously mentioned that might be exacerbated when combined together. Certain combinations of these will result in a decline for health coverage.

Excess Weight Affect Your Health and Cost of Healthcare?

While many overweight individuals may feel they are being railroaded by the insurers, the conclusion is that between 2 and 7% of all health care cost are associated with overweight and obesity, which resulted from health issues associated with the treatment of the overweight factors such as hypertension, insulin resistance or diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiac conditions, certain forms of cancer, respiratory issues, inactivity, absenteeism from work, mortality cost, and loss of family income from premature death.

What You can Do to Obtain Approval For A Health Insurance Policy

If you believe you may be overweight and may not qualify for individual or family health coverage, you can take a few precautions prior to submitting a health application. You should find a qualified health insurance broker who offers more than one carrier’s products and is knowledgeable about some of the underwriting requirements or is able to research the best plan for you. You can complete a prescreen application which will allow the broker to communicate with underwriters the issues prior to submitting the application and improve your chances of approval and avoid a potential decline. A decline can really be detrimental to obtaining creditable coverage. You should also review the BMI tables while not all tables are the same this will give you an idea of how close or far you are from current healthy body mass index levels for your height. Lastly consider improving your health for your own benefit by starting some basic exercise like walking 30 minutes a day, educating yourself about nutritious foods, eliminating empty calories like sugar and saturated fats and creating a lifestyle that makes you feel good, makes you productive, make you look great, reverse some health problems altogether and extend your life and most of all affords you quality health insurance.

There is no question that every person deserves to have adequate health insurance coverage. The truth of the matter, however, is that not all people in the United States really have an insurance coverage. In most cases, even those who do have insurance plans have different services that they avail of. What we mean here is that there is always a difference when it comes to the coverage that people get when they avail of different plans that are being offered by different insurance companies. In addition to that, people also pay different amounts of money for the plans that they get for themselves and their loved ones.

Now what do you do so you can save money and still get the best health insurance coverage that you need? Well read on since we have at least three tips for you so you could look for ways to get a practical insurance plan.

Well of course, it is already obvious that you should compare the prices and services that different health insurance providers offer. By doing that, you will immediately find out which plan you could afford and which services you would need. In addition, you could also check group insurance services. These days, most employers would offer this to their employees because it can help them save money. Depending on the group plan that you avail, there are also several plans that allow spouses and children of individuals to be added in the coverage. As we have said, you should carefully check the policy that these companies have so you can make sure about that before spending anything. Aside from the companies, even organizations and associations are availing of these kinds of insurance coverage as a benefit for their members. Actually, even businesses, such as some credit card companies, are already offering these health insurance services as a benefit for their clients too as a way of increasing the number of their customers.

If you are interested, you could likewise avail of individual health insurance. Now, looking for an insurance that falls into this category isn’t very hard since most insurance companies offer this option to their clients. This way, you would be able to be more appropriately covered once you need to spend something for your health expenses. If you are unemployed or laid-off, you could also contact the state office in your area and avail of state-sponsored health insurance.

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This digital document is an article from American Journalism Review, published by University of Maryland on April 1, 2000. The length of the article is 2755 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: CURING HEALTH AN… More >>

CURING HEALTH AND MEDICAL COVERAGE.: An article from: American Journalism Review