while this article seems to be much ado about nothing here, it is what I thought..

This isn't a flaw of the 'evil insurance companies', it is the flaws inherent in using outdated charts and graphs for determine 'proper' height or weight and so on. It also shows the perils of automated review and what happens when there is lack of personalized oversight. So far, it seems any doctor out there would be saying 'kids fine, putting on weight like this at his age is ok' while th e'holy chart' says fat.

they do realize that these same charts put people like olympic athletes (spec weight lifters, etc) as 'morbidly obese' even though they are some of the most fit people in the country?

it also underlies the social issues at how anything deemed as a weakness is demonized esp if it is not within a person's control.

the insurance company, as noted above realized their their automated system is in error.. someone decided to do a 'sanity check' and realized that something was amiss.

it is hilarious how people expect private business to be mandated to the level of a utility when it comes to the individuals own greed and sense of self entitlement. Typical communist thinking.

It's simple!! EAT ACCORDINGLY!!!! PEOPLE FEED THEIR FAT ASS FACES WITH SOO MUCH # AND THEN BLAME IT ON SOME TYPE OF MEDICAL CONDITION!! IT'S ALL PASSED FROM PARENTS THAT HAVE UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS AND HER BREAST MILK IS EVIDENTLY NOT WORKING FOR THAT CHILD! WEIGHT LOSS IS SIMPLE PEOPLE, VITAMINS, PROTIEN, FOOD WITHOUT BUTTER, SEASONING...... SO ON!

Originally posted by texasboy1022
It's simple!! EAT ACCORDINGLY!!!! PEOPLE FEED THEIR FAT ASS FACES WITH SOO MUCH # AND THEN BLAME IT ON SOME TYPE OF MEDICAL CONDITION!! IT'S ALL PASSED FROM PARENTS THAT HAVE UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS AND HER BREAST MILK IS EVIDENTLY NOT WORKING FOR THAT CHILD! WEIGHT LOSS IS SIMPLE PEOPLE, VITAMINS, PROTIEN, FOOD WITHOUT BUTTER, SEASONING...... SO ON!

What? That baby's mom is skinny!

I look at that baby and think, now there's a future linebacker!

He may lose the weight when he gets active though.

I was severely overweight once, and I hardly ate anything at all. When I did, it was mostly soup and such. When I'd go back to visit my mom in the state I used to live in, weight would drop off and I'd be eating more out there than here! Doesn't have anything to do with stuffing face. A body that's healthy and receiving proper nutrients can burn fat on its own anyway.

A woman I used to talk to had a baby like that, and yes he's a big kid now. He plays football. He isn't fat, just big. Not everyone fits on a chart.

Originally posted by RestingInPieces
Look at you all, protesting that you pay your masters to take care of you!

Here is a dollar, master! Take care of my baby!

Here is my INSURANCE payment, MASTER! Take care of ME. HELP ME, MASTER!

Master! I beg of you! Let me pay you 250% more than you will ever give me back master, lest you cut me off of your teet!

PLEASE MASTER!! LET ME SACRIFICE MY TIME/WORK/MONEY TO YOU SO THAT I MAY FEEL SAFE! YOU ARE AS GODS, INSURANCE COMPANY!

Sheeple if I've ever seen them!

So when your appendix decides that it's going to swell up and threaten to kill you, you will be ready willing and able to pay between $15,000 and $30,000 for the bills? Because surely you have no Master. You have been taking that money that the sheeple foolishly burn on the altar of their health insurance Masters and saving/investing it ot be able to cover your own expenses.

If fall out of a treestand and shatter your hip, you're good to go for the costs of surgery, replacement and physical therapy, right?

Because, surely, you know that there is nothing in this world for free. You would never look for a handout, so you would expect the doctors to charge what the market will bear, since they are (like you, you rugged individualist) providing for themselves and their families. Right?

Now this is not to say that the way the healthcare system exists currently is right or proper. There are deep and devastating flaws linked primarily to our imaginary monetary system. Still, until the cost of health care is brought down (something that tort reform alone CANNOT accomplish), insurance will continue to be a necessary evil.

[edit on 13-10-2009 by RobertAntonWeishaupt]

i dont have health insurance. i havent in a while.

when i did, it was only 80 bucks a month and my employer paid half, so i only paid 40/mnth.

i like the choice of not having it if i dont want.

if we go on government run, we will ALL HAVE to have it.

and it will cost.

this single payer, isnt free healthcare like peoples in england or france.

dont be stupid, its a money scheme to make EVERYONE pay, instead of just the rich, mean, old republicans

Originally posted by noonebutme

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
Wow, I am appalled by some of the comments on this topic. It seems this world is full of heartless, emotionless, and careless people, and most of them have louder mouths then their opposites.

It's fantastic to see someone so full of heart and empathy.

And being so warm and kind, you will have no issue *paying* for this child's medical bills then? If you contact the publisher of the article saying you'd like to pay for his bills, I'm sure they'd put you through to the child's parents so you can pay.

It's so fantastic there's so many people will to help out!

Well, I for one have no problem pitching in to make sure that this baby, you, and everyone else in this country has adequate medical coverage. The same way my taxes go towards the military to make sure that everyone (not just me) is safer, to make sure everyone has decent water, to make sure our schools and libraries stay open...Yes, I will happily pay my share.

I think most people would not mind paying more taxes if we saw where the money was going. Regardless of what other countries may think of us, we are not all cold, money-hungry isolationists. We want to help our fellow man, but we have a corrupt system that needs to be changed. There are so many lobbyists for public interests, so much bickering, I feel that we have somehow lost part of our humanity. That is why the public option is so important.

Everyone who wants Aetna, BCBS, or WellPoint, stand in this line and continue to pay them. Everyone who wants the government plan, line up over here. It is that simple. Capitalism at its best. There is hope that the option will be added after the vote today. I am staying hopeful.

So to answer you from my own regard, Someone like me paying the entirety of the butterball's bills would put a tremendous strain on my family and I assume it would do the same to his parents, but TOGETHER, we can make sure that not only he is taken care of, but your little butterball (should you have one) will be protected as well. In denying that child coverage, he could not even get vaccines unless his parents put the bill or they find a (surprise!) government run clinic that would bill them according to what they earned. I don't want people to make those decisions. As one american...human...to another, I don't ever want you or your family to have to go through a life changing illness and lose coverage. I want you and yours to always have the peace knowing that you will not lose your home if you get sick...and I don't even know you. I just know how I want my family to be treated, and, by extension, you and yours.

We are all in this together. Maybe I just have on rose colored glasses. Perhaps someone else will call me a stinking commie. but I am actually very sad right now to the point I am tearing up at my desk. Is this who we are? Do we really not give a damn about our nieghbor? How did this happen?

My twins celebrated their 12th birthday this past saturday. We took them and their friends to a haunted house, out to dinner, and then to an arcade. One of their friends did not have money to play the games. before I could reach in my pocket, all eight kids pulled out money to pitch in. they did not let one go without when they had more than enough to help.

Is that too simplistic? Is that an affront to capitalism? should I have told them to put there money back and if their friend could not afford it, tough luck? I know the situation I presented may not be accurate in regards to something as dire as health care, but I bet you remember being a child and how precious a nickel, dime, or a whole dollar was.

If they get it.. Twelve year olds..why can't we??!! I am not saying foot the bill for everyones entertainment, but how can we let people die because they cannot afford to get better? When did the Herders become the wolves?



typos. sorry

[edit on 10/13/09 by IconoclasticTalamasca]

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
Let me play the devils advocate here for a moment. DISCLAIMER: What I am about to post, is NOT my personal opinion, just a hypothetical viewpoint from the insurers side of things.....

The child is deemed to be obese. Obesity is a burden and a major risk for the insurers. Just like with smokers, they don't like to insure people that are deemed a major "risk". The potential insurer(s) see a future loss on said child.

Again, not my personal opinion at all. Just voicing what the insurance company is most likely thinking. I could be wrong...but I don't think so.

[edit on 10/13/2009 by MadDogtheHunter]

Also, you could make the case that the parents should just pay for his care. Why can't they do it for themselves?

The baby is perfectly normal. He is a large four month old. To every insist a baby is obese is just beyond absurd. And anyone siding with this thought it absolutely clueless.

Babies are meant to be chubby. Because they grow at exponential rates. Therefore they need a lot of fat and fuel. Babies double their size the first six months. And they also eat more and plump up before a big growth spurt, children do that until adulthood.

Then they start thinning out at 3 years old.

To put a four month old on any kind of diet is too risky. Nature has desigened babies to know what they need to eat, and when and how much.

No insurance company should ever be deciding that for an infant.

And I find it very DISTURBING,that anyone on ATS stands up for a big company and supports such a thought. That insurance companies, who have never even met the child, can dictate how that child should look. Just disturbing.

[edit on 13-10-2009 by nixie_nox]

I say just wait until the government controls the healthcare industry...they won't deny people, just charge them more for things like smoking, drinking, being overweight, eating at mcdonalds, heck they may even charge you more for owning a gun or having a high risk hobby...
With the government comes control over our lives

I think that there is something more to this story that isn't being said. It makes no sense that an insurance company would turn down a breastfed four month old for being overweight. Anyone that has ever read a book about babies would know that it is impossible for a breastfed baby to be overweight. The body just does what it does when that's the case.

Actually looking at the picture of the baby the way the baby is prop for the camera makes the baby probably bigger that really is.

See how the mother is back and look smaller but the baby seems to take much of the picture?

I think is to make the baby look disproportionated to the mother.

Funny.

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to [url=http://www.above

State programs are enacted here for the care of expecting mothers that are in need, they are well fed through pregnancy.

So the babies are healthy babies.

American babies are over three times more likely to die in their first month as children in Japan and the newborn mortality rate is 2.5 times higher in the US than in Finland, Iceland, or Norway. Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births has a higher death rate than the U.S.

And if you care to narrow down the statistics, the southeastern part of the U.S. has the highest child mortality in the country.

So when you say southern babies are fat, healthy babies, maybe you are just talking about your friends and family?