Um hello? Do you not get that a child that cannot control her weight IS NOT a pre-existing condition?? I have three children, and the charts for the height and weight my or my peer's children 'should' be are completely off!! One's ALWAYS too small or too tall... God's children come in all sizes, and how dare an insurance company treat a petite child as a pre-existing condition!

Apparently, Justin has NO concept of anything. What a poor soul.

Justin - You are right insurance companies are a business (they seem to think they are doctors???) being a company and having the right to make a profit what exactly stops them from dropping you if you become sick with say a broken leg, a blood infection, sore throat that turns out to be strep, complications to a simple surgery (tooth extraction) or lets look at all the risk factors most of us face everyday a car accident that happens through no fault of our own yet leaves us at whatever age injured, paralyzed whatever or even have a temporary bout of depression (makes you uninsurable if you get treated for it). We all have genes...I guess the insurance companies should take blood and run genetic risks on each of us. I guess they would lose business because NO ONE is perfect. We all have a "family" disease most of which are treatable but ahhhhh that costs money. Justin hope you don't get your family disease or you may be dropped from your insurance and yes if you are that makes other insurance companies turn their back!

You talk too much...

I hate to burst your bubble on insurance companies but a child's weight and growth chart are not a screening tool for future or existing conditions. My daughter is five years old and according to growth charts is way below the national average, however she is in perfect health. We also did a genetic test on her as a baby and according to that she is just destined to be short as her grandmother and uncles are. So please don't defend insurance companies and group all people together as all having pre-existing conditions due to weight and height.

This is exactly what President Obama and democtrats are fighting for. Greed from private insurers. How can any company screen people out because of pre-existing conditions. Are people at Capital Hill aware of this insurance company? I know some people such as Sean Hannity, Rush, Michael Steele, Allan Keyes, the Bimbo from Alaska and other Christian fundamentalists such as Sanford the sinner, do not want public option and therefore want to deny 41mi Americans medical care. They argue there are not enough doctors and therefore there will be medical rationing if all people have access to medical services. Is that not dumb reasoning? Is this what America was built on or is it because the majority who do not have health insurance are poor blacks and poor whites? Whose fault we do not have enough doctors? Republicans who limited people to enter the profession. I believe opponents and especially those mentioned above are in pockets of health insurance companies. Anyway these are same people who were haunting Obama during the campaign. We should not forget that. All people in this country should have access to madical care regardless of race or income status. President Obama is right. President Obama will not waver on public option
Two months ago I told you not to believe polls. Now you see it yourself. President Obama rating is on the rebound. My family and I are banking for 2012 Obama re-election already. Respondents of internet polls are rich and haters of progressive people. These are hard core corrupt capitalists who have messed up this country for a long time. Now reality has caught on us. The country was failing. Now it is on the rebound with Obama as President.
Again Do not get me wrong-I love capitalism. It makes people work harder. But I do not like corrupt capitalism. That is why we have government to oversee what businesses are doing to people. The country was bankrupt by corrupt capitalists. Uncaught corrupt capitalists are now crying" ballooning deficit!!" Wait a munute now. Since when corrupt capitalists were concerned about deficit? Uncaught corrupt capitalists have been trying to kill this country for a long time for their selfish ends. Look, there are more than 41 mi uninsured Americans. Do they care? Hell no. Now here is our angel, President Obama, is trying to repair what was messed up past eight years. Republicans and conservatives are crying foul that future generation will be overburdened with deficit.. Are these people for real? No. When did Republicans and so called corrupt capitalists were ever concerned about future generations? No. After all future generation will solve its own problems-that is what radical right usually believe in. Forty years ago did we have lap-top computers to facilitate business? No. Present generationl discovered computers. So let future generation solve its problems. We have to solve our problems now to prepare future general to solve its problems. Future generation does not want to be babysat. They can solve its own problems. Obama will not waiver on public option. Long live our President Obama.

It is time that insurance companies are put out of the medical business.
Only medical personal and those jobs that directly support medical care should profit.
Maybe the government can do a better job.

I can almost guarantee "Justin" works for an insurance company. Seriously.

Spoken like a true insurance salesman. How much commission did you get for that post. My children were always considered above the norm when they were small, (especially in height) but then I'm 5'3" and their father was 6'4", OF COURSE they didn't match the norm. This is a little girl!!!! No two children (even in the same family) grow at the same rate!!! Get a Life, or at least, GET A CONSCIOUS (sp?). I'm not a big supporter of this new "health care plan" (she types while laughing), but if it will knock some of these BIG insurance companies down a peg or two, I'll take a look into it!!!!

I believe Hitler was the first one to actually act on the concept of the perfect human being .

Wow, many valid points, almost relevant to the article. You obviously don't have kids or are a doctor of any sort. Kids weight is not a pre-existing condition, especially infants or toddlers, they grow at varying rates. The smallest child can grow to be the obese 30 year old with diabetes. With infants it is not a predictive measure that insurance companies can justify, the medical data wouldn't support it.

With that said, absolutely agree with you, would not want to buy insurance from a company with such a ridiculous policy and would have just shopped around more, as frustrating as that is.

I LOVE IT WHEN A HUMAN BEING'S LIFE IS SOMEHOW INCORPORATED INTO THIS GAME OF CAPITALISM. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A CHILD WHO NEEDS INSURANCE SO THAT HER HEALTH CAN BE PROPERLY MAINTAINED. IT'S AMAZING THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN THE PREDICAMENT LIKE THE ONE ABOVE CAN ALWAYS TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE.

Personally you sound as if you may be employed in the insurance business. That having been said, if that kids taxpaying parents haden't bailed out half the banks, insurance companies, auto mfgrs. etc, you just might not even have a job to try and rationalize. I'm in the construction business, and Blue Cross is renovating a small office near my home. The cost ,to my company for 1900 ft of the ceiling they have to have is over $30,000. Let's get real that may be a half hours wages for the CEO of CIGNA, but it is still a waste of money. Insuring a child, is not.

You're so full of crap you can't even begin to see through all the BS. ALL children are not the perfect size. In fact, I don't see not one thing being wrong with being petite. I might add a note, I tried to get insurance through Blue Cross-Blue Shield (Companion) for my teenage daughter years ago and she was denied because they thought she was anorexic. She was 5'6" and just has small bones and weighed 80 pounds. I had to get a signed letter from her pediatrician that said she has always been skinny from Day 1 of her birth!!!!! She eventually was given the insurance. Today she has a daughter as well that only weighs 30 pounds and she is 2 years old. It runs in our family!!!!! So, STFU you know-it-all!!!

WOW Justin, obviously you work for an insurance company. And, I would love it if you could show me exactly WHERE any of the health insurance companies have increased reimbursements or decreased premiums with the money they made and "saved". You know what happens to that money? It goes to the upper level execs in their annuals bonuses!! What is made in profits or "saved" through the company is never put back into the company for the benefit of payments or reducing premium costs. Also--you mention tort reform, and please allow me to tell you that medical malpractice lawsuits have abolutely NOTHING to do with the price of health insurance premiums. The medical malpractice insurance companies blame the lawsuits and big financial awards on why their premiums are so high--but, I do believe that when a child becomes brain damaged during birth because of the fault of the doctor, and will require institutionalization for the rest of their lives, with ventilators and physical therapists and 24 hours care, they DESERVE multi-million dollar awards!! There are few medical malpractice cases that are flagrant in the courts--they are too expensive to litigate and no lawyer will even take a case that does not look like a "large" case. Perhaps you think that the punitive awards are "obscene", but I can guarantee that if your child was born brain-damaged, you wouldn't think the award was obscene. Insurance companies have been f**king people over left, right and center for decades, and they need to be stopped. This health care reform bill will drive the cost of health insurance down, and that is something that needs to be done. For a family of 4 ot have to pay close to $4000 a month in premiums is ridiculous!! Perhaps the upper level administration should have their salaries cut by 50%, and put the other 50% back into the company to lower premiums and increase reimbursements. You try to come up with reasons why the medical insurance business is so corrupt and screws people over--but every year the CEO's of those same insurance companies are taking home 15, 18, 20, 30 million dollar bonuses on top of their multi-million dollar salaries!! Give me a break! Perhaps you should add that to your list of reasons "why" premiums are so high............I can't wait until this health care reform finally goes through, and private insurance companies are forced to reduce their premiums because people are not going to pay their high prices and they'll go with the government option instead. I can't wait!! I'm all for capitalism, but when it comes at the expense of f**king injured and ill people over, that kind of practice needs to be stopped. These people need a big dose of reality--they've been hiding out in their private jets for too long.

Just a couple of things, Justin...

Your assumption that the health insurance that is "available" is also affordable. When many people have just seen exorbitant and unmerited increases in their insurance premiums, deductibles, etc.? Most folks can barely afford the 'standard" insurance that is available. That's why sooo many people are either uninsured or underinsured. It's also why, although our coverage keeps shrinking, the insurance companies bottom line keeps growing - again, exponentially.

Health insurance is in business to make money... not healthy people. What do they bring to the table? They do not treat. They do not diagnose. They do not prescribe. They have successfully blackmailed us into thinking they are indispensable. My health is not a commodity that should be brokered by some for-profit entity who first and foremost wants to make money by NOT paying my bills.

Which brings us back to the little girl in this article. So the perfectly healthy, but underweight, two year old who breaks her arm falling out of a tree should just suck it up? Maybe her folks can take out a second mortgage on their house to get her treated. Or... they can just take her to the ER, get her treated, and not pay the bill - as millions of other Americans are forced to do. Then the hospital can roll those costs into their charges, and the insurance companies can pass that along to the rest of us in our premiums. That's the way the current system works.

Of course, there is an alternative. An affordable, available public option that addresses not only YOUR (very valid) issues, but the issues of everyone else in the country as well. It's an alternative the CBO has said would SAVE everyone in the country money, and possibly even help reduce the deficit. It's an alternative most people and even most medical practitioners would like. BUT, it is an alternative to the for-profit health insurance industry, which is why they are paying billions (of the the money they receive in premiums!) to oppose any public option.

Public options work with varying degrees of success in plenty of countries around the world (Switzerland, England, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, etc...). And while some work better than others, and some incorporate private insurance and some don't, the one thing they all have in common is that they ALL work better than what we have in this country. Longer life spans, fewer infant mortalities, AND lower per capita costs!

It is time for America to catch up to the rest of the western industrialized nations on this.

So Justin...for which insurance company do you work?

Justin, obviously you are young and healthy. Give it 20 years and see if you feel the same way. Why should people be penalized for pre-existing conditions, especially if it is one they have no control over? My mother had a pre-cancerous polyp in her colon. She had the section of colon removed, essentially CURING the cancer BEFORE it even started. Yet years later, when she lost her health insurance, she was denied by several carriers because of her “pre-existing condition.” Sure, there are plans out there that you speak of, and they are UNAFFORDABLE. Get it? As in, costing more money than the person can pay. And they are priced that way on purpose to discourage people from buying them. You can bet it will cost way more to treat the person than the plan would cost. Yes, insurance companies are out to make money. I don’t deny them that. But there is such a thing as making too much money. There is something wrong when one person loses everything they own due to illness while someone else pockets money that could have prevented it as their own simply because they refused to allow it to be used to pay those medical expenses.

Cool story, bro.

So, according to you, then everyone should be the exact same? The exact same height and weight for their age? Gee, I *really* wish that you were President! We'd all be fine, because we'd all be the same!

Give her healthcare. She can't control her genes. What does the company expect, her parents to "fatten her up" so she can have healthcare? That's unhealthy.

If there's an "obese" baby, do they expect that baby to go on a diet to lose weight so they can have healthcare?

Healthcare for all.