Wilson
06-01-2008, 01:11 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/health/01insure.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1212340028-T6XklCIV6Iosj31jZiRTmQ
When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified....
She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/c-section/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier). Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified....
Although it is not known how many women are in Ms. Robertson’s situation, the number seems likely to increase, because the pool of people seeking individual health insurance, now about 18 million, has been growing steadily — and so has the Caesarean rate, which is at an all-time high of 31.1 percent. In 2006, more than 1.2 million Caesareans were performed in the United States, and researchers estimate that each year, half a million women giving birth have had previous Caesareans.
“Obstetricians are rendering large numbers of women uninsurable by overusing this surgery,” said Pamela Udy, president of the International Caesarean Awareness Network, a group whose mission is to prevent unnecessary Caesareans.
When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified....
She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/c-section/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier). Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified....
Although it is not known how many women are in Ms. Robertson’s situation, the number seems likely to increase, because the pool of people seeking individual health insurance, now about 18 million, has been growing steadily — and so has the Caesarean rate, which is at an all-time high of 31.1 percent. In 2006, more than 1.2 million Caesareans were performed in the United States, and researchers estimate that each year, half a million women giving birth have had previous Caesareans.
“Obstetricians are rendering large numbers of women uninsurable by overusing this surgery,” said Pamela Udy, president of the International Caesarean Awareness Network, a group whose mission is to prevent unnecessary Caesareans.