17 Pound Baby Too Fat for Health Insurance

By Kelly Turner on October 21st, 2009

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A four-month-old baby in Colorado was denied health insurance for a pre-existing medical condition. That condition? Obesity.

Because, you know, amniotic fluid and breast milk are so fattening.

Little Alex Lange weighs a whopping 17 pounds, but is considered a happy, healthy four-month-old baby by his pediatrician’s standards who, according to his parents, Bernie and Kelli Lange, has never mentioned any concerns over Alex’s weight.

Rocky Mountain Health Plans, the insurer who refused to cover Alex, claims the issue is that Alex’s weight and height (25 inches) put him in the 99th percentile for weight; they refuse to insure anyone above the 95% percentile, no matter how healthy.

Bernie Lange, a part-time news anchor at KKCO-TV in Grand Junction, says that’s crap. “I could understand if we could control what he’s eating. But he’s four months old. He’s breast-feeding. We can’t put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill.”

Pre-existing medical condition, huh? While he’s always been a big baby, weighing in at eight and quarter pounds at birth, this kid is just four-months-old. He’s not old enough to have a pre-existing anything. I’ve had paper cuts that have hung around longer than four months.

A fat, happy baby is enough to bring a smile to even the most cold hearted person’s face, unless of course that face belongs to Big Insurance. It’s a numbers game, and no matter what your situation, if your numbers lie above or below their rigid range on a flow chart, you can be left in the dust; even if you are an adorable, innocent tow-headed baby. Since breaking, this story has become a nationwide symbol for the health care reform debate. Especially to highlight that insurance companies can turn people down that have pre-existing conditions who aren’t covered in a group health care plan.

Fortunately the decision, probably due to the media exposure and public outrage, has since been overturned, and little Alex now has coverage.