Obesity Health Insurance:

The number of people classified as obese in the United States has risen significantly over the last decades. Falling into the weight range that is classified as obese can significantly reduce an individual’s chance of obtaining affordable health insurance. Many insurance companies use an individual’s weight as a reason to deny health insurance for obesity, and for those they do grant it to, the premiums are usually significantly increased.

Who is Classified as Obese?

Most insurance companies ask an applicant to provide their height and weight when they apply for health insurance coverage. Some even require individuals to undergo a medical examination to confirm the accuracy of the information provided on the application. Although the actual guidelines vary from insurance company to insurance company, most use a patient’s BMI to determine whether or not they are to be considered obese.

The BMI, or Body Mass Index is a measurement calculated using height and weight to determine the amount of “fat” an individual carries. Although many of these people are otherwise very healthy in many cases, they are often still denied a health insurance policy as their obesity is classified as a “pre existing condition”. Being denied for an insurance policy based on being being overweight or obese is considered a pre-existing health condition. 

Why Don’t Insurance Companies Help the Obese?

Although it would of course be better for everyone to maintain a healthy weight and BMI for many it is an ongoing and daily struggle to do so. There are a number of effective medical treatments to help conquer obesity but since for the obese health insurance is so very hard to obtain in the first place such treatments and procedures are just not available to them. To many people this is something that makes very little sense.

Obesity certainly can lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and diabetes, so helping people lose the weight would seem to be a reasonable course of action. There are few traditional health insurance plans following this rationale however. They follow the notion that even if an obese person is currently very healthy they are, as a result of their weight, far more likely to become seriously ill and are therefore a bad insurance risk.

How can the Obese Obtain Health Insurance Coverage?

There are health insurance policies that will accept the obese or indeed anyone with a preexisting condition of any kind. Guaranteed Acceptance health insurance is one such option. These plans do not require a medical questionnaire or examination of any kind to be completed and are issued to anyone who applies.

There are affordable options for “obesity health insurance” amongst these kinds of plans, and by working with a reliable and honest insurance broker overweight people who had begun to consider themselves uninsurable should finally be able to obtain the kind of quality health insurance we are all looking for.

You should know that that not all insurers clause being overweight in identical manners.The underwriting guidelines when it comes to offering the public health insurance varies from company to company.  Many insurers have a distinctly different body mass index tables which is based on the sex of the applicant. The body mass index is the determining factor which decides if the applicant is offered a policy. This information will furthermore determine the premium that the applicant will be requested to pay. There are insurers which use a unisex body mass index chart. This type of underwriting will be more favorable for female applicants.