Okay, I know the title of this post does not sound very Christian of me… but I don’t know how to describe my feelings any other way right now!
We just got our second potential referral (the first one being the sisters I mentioned a while back). This precious little girl, that I have never laid eyes on fits our criteria, but has a heart defect.
Her heart defect does not bother my husband or I… we knew we would be willing to take a child with correctable special needs. This little girl was born with a hole in her heart and the doctor in India said she would need surgery to correct it and then she would be completely healthy.
Well, my husband and I began to feel that excitement about this little girl, and we started paving the way to get information about her heart surgery…
Well, this is when the bomb dropped. We called our insurance agent here in town and talked to her about the surgery.
This was her response… By law I have to cover your child, but we will raise your premiums to $2000.00 a month.
Well, thanks Farm Bureau! What a relief! Yeah right!
So those of you that know me… know I don’t like the answer no, and I fight for what I think is right.
I immediately got on the phone calling anyone I thought I could in Tennessee to see what our right’s were and what the child’s rights would be.
To my dismay, I continue to run into walls. The TN Commissioner of Insurance office said that is the local agent’s right and that is how insurance companies are navigating around national and state laws that have been passed to protect adopted children. See, just a few years ago… there were some insurance companies refusing to cover adopted kids all together, but now law states they have to be covered.
So they have decided to raise premiums on families that have kids with pre existing conditions to avoid high pay outs for families. Scott tries to tell me it is a business and insurance companies have to make money… But it just bothers me to my core…. when did it become okay to make money at the expense of needy children.
There are a few human service agencies in TN that may be able to help… but nothing is guaranteed and when we bring up the surgery…. they tell us they would not be required to help with a $50,000 heart surgery if they covered her.
I am waiting to hear back from one last person that may be able to provide some helpful info… but I have run out of options.
My adoption agency says this is the first time she has ever run into this problem with a family. So of course, it would be me.
Do any of you blog readers have any good advice or know of other families that have experienced this same situation and they got help?
Just now I got a phone call… that may lead to some more good info. Please pray that it does. Thanks