Insurance and Circ

[Cherries10700]

Anyone know of any insurance companies who do not cover circ?
Or an article about this?
Thanks in Advance.

[baybee]

I can't answer your question specifically.
We had a really good presentation at the Symposium on this subject by a woman who runs a HMO. Maybe others have more info but what I understood she was saying was that, in order to have circ taken off the funding schemes for insurance cos., you would have to get all of them in an area to agree to it together because they are concerned that people will switch companies if one covers it and the others don't. Baybee

[SammyJr]

Originally Posted by baybee

I can't answer your question specifically.
We had a really good presentation at the Symposium on this subject by a woman who runs a HMO. Maybe others have more info but what I understood she was saying was that, in order to have circ taken off the funding schemes for insurance cos., you would have to get all of them in an area to agree to it together because they are concerned that people will switch companies if one covers it and the others don't. Baybee

I don't know why that would matter. At least in the United States, most people get their health insurance through their work. Most places I worked at or applied at have 1 or 2 insurance companies at the most. Also, you cannot switch insurances except during open enrollment, once a year.

If one company were to drop it, it would be very hard for a people to make an exodus from that company.

Still, getting rid of circumcision coverage at all the insurers in the area would be a great thing!

[babygrant]

in BC Canada it's not covered by insurance because if someone gets their boy circ'd you bring $200.00 in and hand it to the doctor and doctor puts it in their pocket.

[Fyrestorm]

I can't say much for private insurance, but alot of states medicaid systems are no longer paying for it.

[Fyrestorm]

I just found a link for medicaid info

[Dave2GA]

I understand BCBS of Pa. dropped neonatal circ years ago due to the urging of Dr. John Duckett.

[MomToKandE]

When ds was born (2.5 years ago) our insurance company would not cover circ. I believe we were with Aetna at the time... can't remember for sure. I think the procedure was only $300 or so. That's a lot of $$ but doesn't seem like much compared to the $400 that the hospital charged to put 6 stitches in the same ds's forehead a few months ago.

[gypsycat]

I don't have any links but one of my co-workers who runs a mommy and me group was telling me last month that more and more insurances are dropping covering it and/or listing it as cosmetic so not totally covering it and in her group atleast that swayed a lot of them from having it done.

It just strikes me as weird that they would do this to their child if it was free but not when they have to pay for it.:
Why do it at all?!

Her only fear is that the mom's who don't do it just because it's not covered also won't bother to actually research how to take care of it and end listening to bad or wrong advice ( ie retracting to clean). I shudder to think of that.

[baybee]

It would end up being a smart economic move for the insurance cos. to send an accurate "Intact Penis Care" brochure out to every one of their customers who has a boy in order to prevent unnecessary return visits/surgeries.
Baybee

[~Nikki~]

The Canadian Healthcare plan no longer covers it. I'm not sure when they stopped. It was somewhere between 2003 and 2005, because I know it was covered when DD was born (her gender was a suprise, so we were asked if we were going to circ the baby prior to baby's birth), and not covered when DS was born (they didn't even ask me if I was circing him, after his birth).

I beleive the pamphlet I read about it said something along the lines of routine circumcision no longer being recommended or covered because there are no major health benefits to it, and many risks. I think the cost of circumcision is somewhere around $300, in Ontario.

[angelpie545]

The state Medicaid for children in Washington State does not pay for circumcision. This worked to dh's advantage when he had his son with his ex-girlfriend. She was on medicaid at the time and didn't find out until the last minute that medicaid wouldn't pay for it. She demanded that dh pay for it. He refused. Their son wasn't circ'd.

[paquerette]

I am glad that BCBS is the ins. co. at DH's new place of employment! : We've been uninsured for a while (way too expensive at his former place of employment; hence the change, among other things) and we've quibbled here and there over whether we'd buy coverage with a co. that still covers it.

Of course, I tend to think health insurance is quite the scam anyway. And I'll never find one that covers the stuff that I want (midwifery, chiropractic, accupuncture, homeopathic etc) and doesn't cover stuff I don't need (no copay for wbc's and shots! um, yay?)