Angharad - March 6th, 2008

10:22 pm - I said a dirty word

How to get the operator at ehealthinsurance.com to hang up on you: Say the F-word!

I'm thinking about changing my health care coverage. Duh. The one offered through work clearly isn't working, and the premium is high too. The problem is me. There isn't a health insurance company in the world that would take me on if it had the choice. I've been denied by the best.

I decided to call ehealthinsurance.com to see if there might have been some change in the last few years since my last round of denials.

I told the operator I was looking to change my health insurance coverage.

"What state do you live in?" she asked.

"Illinois. Um, the problem is my pre-existing conditions."

"What pre-existing conditions do you have?"

"Um, asthma."

No response. So far so good.

"Chronic migraine."

Still no response. Things are looking up. I decide to skip the Ehlers-Danlos and go right to dropping the f-bomb.

"Fibromyalgia."

Bingo. "Let me stop you right there," she says. "With fibroidmyalgia [sic], none of our plans will cover you." Click.

At least most insurance companies now recognize fibromyalgia exists (even if the Firefox spellcheck doesn't). When I was first diagnosed, that wasn't the case.

I truly believe that fibromyalgia sufferers are victims of sexism as well. If the gender ratio were reversed (it's 9 to 1, women to men), it would have been recognized as an illness before 1987, and the skepticism and the initial insurance claim denials would have been seriously reduced.