Health Insurance and Circ.

[Sungold17]

Knowing that circumcision is hardly ever needed for real medical reasons, and knowing further that there really is no reason to circ why then does health insurance pay for it?? The only answer I can come up with is tradition and they don't want to step on people's toes??

With health cost always rising and preimiums going up it seems logical one way to save money is by no longer covering routine circ. It seems insurance companies can be so stingy on other needed procedures but yet they are paying how many thousands of dollors a year on a surgery that is done only because it is a tradition in our societ. Also, when I became pregnant my insurance company sent me educational materials on things like breastfeeding and immunizations but nothing on circ. It just baffles me.

Has there been any wide spread efforts to stop the practice of having routine circ covered by insurance? I'm sure there would be a huge up roar if the companies did stop covering it but that would probably be for the best in the long run (a chance to educate the people.)

I feel like I should get a rebate check from my insurance co from keepind DS intact and also having an epidural free birth. I seriously feel that if someone wants to remove part of their son's penis they should pay for it out of their own pocket and not partly out of mine.

-Dawn

[grisandole]

Some state funded (medicaid) insurance won't pay for circ. I know that CA and AZ won't. A step in the right direction!

Kristi

[Sungold17]

Yes, it is a step in the right direction.

Actually when my brother was born (25 yrs ago) my parents were on medicaid in LA and they would not pay for circ. So he was intact until about 11 years old when my grandparents arranged to get him circ because he was having 'problems.' Turns out my mom never knew she wasn't suppose to pull it back. She feels terrible about it now that she knows. My poor brother. I remember how much pain he was in afterwards.

[A&A]

Originally Posted by grisandole

Some state funded (medicaid) insurance won't pay for circ. I know that CA and AZ won't. A step in the right direction!

Kristi

Actually, 12 states have stopped medicaid coverage of circ.

And keep in mind that, until 1976, Blue Cross-Blue Shield paid for female circumcision.

[zaftigmama]

I can't figure out why insurance companies are paying for it - unless it's pressure from the medical community. I'm sure the dr.'s won't want to see their profits from circ. taken away. And the idea of writing to the insurance company and asking for a rebate is a great idea! I also want to write and tell them I don't want my rather high premiums paying for other circumcisions.

If insurance companies didn't pay for circumcision, it wouldn't really affect religious circumcisions, because they don't typically have their doctors do it, or have insurance pay for it. But I have heard that protests that it would be seen as biased towards those who consider circ. a religious practice if it was not paid for. Or maybe that was if it was banned? I don't know, I don't see how the two are connected.

Obviously if more and more insurance companies stopped covering the procedure it would not only open people's eyes to how unecessary it is, but it wouldn't be done so un-thinkingly. I'm sure if people were told, yes you can have your son circumcised, but it's not covered and you'll need to give us $300 or whatever the cost is, it would make people wonder why they were doing it. If a dr. just does it, and you don't have to pay for it, it's an argument that it's the right thing to do. Or could be seen as such.

I'm all for starting a movement to pressue insurance companies to stop coverage of circ., I just don't know how to start.

Take care!

[wednesday]

Medicaid in NC does not cover circ. They stopped covering it a few years ago, and then there was a huge uproar about how that was "classist" because intact boys would be visibily identifiable as "poor". Which I thought was pretty ridiculous because being intact is also a marker for having highly educated parents. For a while they were covering circ again but my understanding is that after a brief time of covering it they went back to not covering it.

I would also like to see private insurers stop paying for it.

[Frankly Speaking]

Medicaid coverage of circumcision in North Carolina is an interesting story.

This apparently was a bill that was kind of "sneaked" through the legislature. When the medical profession found out what had happened, millions of dollars flowed into the campaign chests of the Governor and selected politicians. Ten days later, the law was rescended. That pretty much lays to waste any question about circumcision not being money driven. If it was such a money loser as has been suggested, they would have been happy to not have to perform it any longer.

However, the next year, the bill was re-submitted and it passed. Apparently, the medical profession felt that they didn't want to buy that same legislation every year!

There has typically been some outcry in each of the states that has ended Medicaid funded circumcisions but it has abated quickly. The sad thing is that the doctors are still making billions of dollars each year on circumcision through insurance paid procedures and the highly lucrative privately paid procedures. The national average for a 10 minute procedure is about $300.00 and for a family of average means, that is not enough to be a deal breaker.




Frank