I’ve been meaning to blog about binge eating disorder and health insurance for such a long time now because I want to share my experience with you.  Here we go…

In 2006, I was on a mission to find another insurance plan.  Since I had just left my job, I was still on COBRA, which is REALLY expensive.  I wanted to pay less and be offered the same benefits.  Oh, and I thought that it would be easy.  I was wrong.

You see, I quickly filled out the insurance applications and everything looked good on paper for the most part.  I didn’t smoke, I didn’t have heart issues, high blood pressure, mental issues…  There was one thing that stumped me though.

Since I did go to therapy for binge eating disorder, I had to mark “yes” to that question.  I was fine with it because I figured I would explain to someone or on something that yes, I had gone to therapy, but it was only to talk about binge eating disorder.  I was never put on medication or hospitalized.  I figured I was fine.

Oh, but I was so wrong.

I don’t remember the specific insurance company, but would you believe that they lumped “eating disorders” with schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other severe mental disorders?  I mean, seriously?!?!?

This is something that I will never understand.  Ever.  There’s is seriously something so not right about this lumping of categories.  I get that anorexia, for example, is a big deal.  It’s a serious eating disorder and it does require being hospitalized, feeding tubes, and other things at times.  But binge eating disorder?

We are talking about the most common of the eating disorders.  Yes, too much bingeing can cause huge health problems including obesity, high blood pressure, etc, but c’mon…  It’s not fair to be put in the same category on an insurance application as schizophrenia.  

(OK my rant about that is over… back to my point)

Of course there was no way around checking this box.  I mean, just a little digging and they would find that I went to a therapy for an eating disorder.  I was doomed and had to check the box.  I was hoping that I would get to explain this to someone, and sure enough, someone called for my interview.

I quickly explained that I had binge eating disorder, was never on medication, just needed therapy to talk to someone about it.  I told the person that I was recovered and didn’t binge anymore.  She made everything sound ok and I felt better about the whole thing.

Fast forward a few weeks and I receive my response from said insurance company in the mail.  I quickly opened it and found that I was denied because of binge eating disorder AND being obsessive compulsive.  WHAT?!

Sure we all have some OCD tendencies, but I did not claim that I had this disorder ever.  It was such a mistake.  

I called the insurance company, explained this mistake, and nothing happened.  They told me that I could appeal it, but that I was denied for both binge eating disorder and OCD.  Even if OCD was taken off, I would probably still be denied…

Do you know how frustrated I was?  It’s like I knew that I needed insurance and I filled out applications, was honest, and still got denied.  Of course, you can’t reapply to the same insurance company for 6-months or even 1-year at times.  Ahhhhhhhh.

So that’s my rant with binge eating disorder and trying to get insurance.  It’s such a hard thing to get when you have or had binge eating disorder.  I honestly felt like I was being punished… and don’t even get me started again on having that in the same category as severe mental disorders.  What, did pressing the ‘return’ button on the keyboard make the application THAT much longer?  I don’t think so.

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 | Binge Eating Disorder, Eating Disorders, Food Addiction | RSS 2.0 | Comment | Trackback