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The following story was linked to CNN website today. A little girl was denied health insurance because she was underweight. Basically, the insurance company has some specific criteria that every insured person must meet, including being within certain height/weight ratios. I'm guessing this is because people who deviate from those ratios would be more likely to have health issues and are more expensive to cover. Nothing new there, insurance companies suck, etc. What I found most unexpected/annoying/startling were some quotes from the parents of the girl:
From the father:
"We would definitely like to see insurance reform. We are not proponents of universal health care by any means, but what we want to see is that insurance companies have legitimate reasons for denying coverage."
Hmm, what are "legitimate reasons", I wonder? Oh, I know - ones that don't exclude them! Ah, that makes sense.
From the mother:
"You’d never think that something like size, something that seems so irrelevant to your health, would be a discriminating factor,"
I've been thinking hard how to characterize this statement tactfully and non-judgementally. I failed so I'll just call it stupid.
From the father:
"We would definitely like to see insurance reform. We are not proponents of universal health care by any means, but what we want to see is that insurance companies have legitimate reasons for denying coverage."
Hmm, what are "legitimate reasons", I wonder? Oh, I know - ones that don't exclude them! Ah, that makes sense.
From the mother:
"You’d never think that something like size, something that seems so irrelevant to your health, would be a discriminating factor,"
I've been thinking hard how to characterize this statement tactfully and non-judgementally. I failed so I'll just call it stupid.
