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Life Insurance

scaredparent

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scaredparent Apprentice
scaredparent
Posted

I have a 24 mo old with undiagnosed celiac disease. He had a positive dietary change. He has been gluten-free for about 7 mo and is doing very well. But here is my question. We are getting ready to test my 7 yr old to see if she has celiac disease? My mom has chones and I told her that she should be tested and she blew up at me because she said "that I am trying to blame her for my childrens problems" she says that because she was diagnosed with chones that she can't get life insurance and I want to know is if you are diagnosed with celiac disease do you also have trouble getting life insurance? Is it better just to go with a dietary change and if you get better you know you have celiac disease if you don't then you don't have celiac disease. I don't want to make it so my children can't get life insurance be cause of a diagnoses in his medical history. Should I test my daughter or just put her on a gluten-free diet and hope for the best?

Thanks in advance

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ianm Apprentice
ianm
Posted

You bring up a good point. With our health care and insurance system looking for any reason to weed potential problem people out getting tested is not something to be taken ligthly. I have never been tested and never will because I am concerned that my insurance provider can use that against me. I was denied life insurance many years ago for another health reason once. I have not had any problems with insurance for the last few years because it has been over 5 years since that problem has occured. Celiac is something that never goes away.

Merika Contributor
Merika
Posted

You can always go to a different doc, pay out of pocket and get an accurate diagnosis. Then just forget to report it to the insurance company. I think an accurate diagnosis is a worthwhile pursuit, regardless of if you have it covered by insurance or not.

With kids, it is a tricky question. You don't want to screw up there insurance options (though WHY gluten-free-celiac people should be penalized is beyond me...). On the other hand, it may be really important with kids that a medical condition be marked in the doc's chart, at school, at camp, and so on. No one will listen to your child or teenager about gluten if they end up in an urgent situation, and that's assuming the kid will remember to tell them in the first place. Also, you may need proof for school reasons.....I don't know.

Merika

Also, it is my understanding that insurance companies don't care if you are "gluten-intolerant" but do care if you are "celiac". I think it's worth considering marking your official charts as gluten-intolerant, and keeping the celiac diagnosis under wraps. It IS lying, though, so decide on your own conscience :)

Merika Contributor
Merika
Posted

PS. Why is it that Americans believe the only way to access medical care is through the insurance provider? We can go to whoever we want, whenever we want. We live in a free country. We just need is the $$ to pay the doctor. Some docs even give discounts if you just pay and don't use insurance.

Merika

Ps. please don't flame that not everyone can afford, yadda yadda....not everyone can, but MOST of us as families have multiple cars, televisions, etc. It's all about priorities...

(note to scaredparent: this isn't aimed at you, it just got me thinking....) :)

lovegrov Collaborator
lovegrov
Posted

Life insurance really should not be a problem. My doctor, who has celiac disease himself, recently increased his coverage and when I looked into it, a broker told me that if I had a negative blood test I could get increased insurance at the regular price. Other health matters cropped so I put it on the back burner.

My job provides health insurance no matter what pre-existing conditions you have so I've never had to test that, but I would think you could also get that.

richard

jenvan Collaborator
jenvan
Posted

Life insurance shouldn't be a problem. I have a policy. And remember, if you have had continual coverage and are not applying for a self-employed insurance policy, you shouldn't be denied the insurance.

You can also do one of the mail-in labs for a test also.

Does anyone actually know how much insurance companies check up on things like blood tests and if they really catch the "smaller" items, not just surgeries, heart attacks, diabetes, etc. ?

lovegrov Collaborator
lovegrov
Posted

With compuetrization, they know a lot more than you think.

richard

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scaredparent Apprentice
scaredparent
Posted
  • Author

We have insurance and the reason being that if we didn't we would spend about 6000 dollars a month alone on meds. That doesn't include dr appt. My husband only brings home about 1100 dollars a month you do the math. We could not survive with out insurance.

drjmarkusic Newbie
drjmarkusic
Posted

I'm a dr. and there are diagnostic codes we use which end up in a centralized data base. When HIPAA went into effect in May a few years back it sure messed some things up.

jimbo Newbie
jimbo
Posted

I recently applied for life insurance - they did blood work beforehand and my numbers were all wacked out (I hadn't been "officially" diagnosed yet, so wasn't dieting yet). Coverage was a lot more expensive than my wifes "normal" policy, but I was told that if my next blood test comes back normal, they will re-write policy...

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    • SamAlvi
      High TTG-IgG and Normal TTG-IgA

      By SamAlvi · Posted

      Thanks again for the detailed explanation. Just to clarify, I actually did have my initial tests done while I was still consuming gluten. I stopped eating gluten only after those tests were completed, and it has now been about 70 days since I went gluten-free. I understand the limitations around diagnosing NCGS and the importance of antibody testing and biopsy for celiac disease. Unfortunately, where I live, access to comprehensive testing (including total IgA and endoscopy with biopsy) is limited, which makes things more complicated. Your explanation about small-bowel damage, nutrient absorption, and iron-deficiency anemia still aligns closely with my history, and it’s been very helpful in understanding what may be going on. I don't wanna get Endoscopy and I can't start eating Gluten again because it's hurt really with severe diarrhea.  I appreciate you taking the time to share such detailed and informative guidance. Thank you so much for this detailed and thoughtful response. I really appreciate you pointing out the relationship between anemia and antibody patterns, and how the high DGP IgG still supports celiac disease in my case. A gluten challenge isn’t something I feel safe attempting due to how severe my reactions were, so your suggestion about genetic testing makes a lot of sense. I’ll look into whether HLA testing is available where I live and discuss it with my doctor. I also appreciate you mentioning gastrointestinal beriberi and thiamine deficiency. This isn’t something any of my doctors have discussed with me, and given my symptoms and nutritional history, it’s definitely worth raising with them. I’ll also ask about correcting deficiencies more comprehensively, including B vitamins alongside iron. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and taking the time to help. I’ll update the forum as I make progress.
    • knitty kitty
      Son's legs shaking

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      Blood tests for thiamine are unreliable.  The nutrients from your food get absorbed into the bloodstream and travel around the body.  So, a steak dinner can falsely raise thiamine blood levels in the following days.  Besides, thiamine is utilized inside cells where stores of thiamine are impossible to measure. A better test to ask for is the Erythrocyte Transketolace Activity test.  But even that test has been questioned as to accuracy.  It is expensive and takes time to do.   Because of the discrepancies with thiamine tests and urgency with correcting thiamine deficiency, the World Health Organization recommends giving thiamine for several weeks and looking for health improvement.  Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.   Many doctors are not given sufficient education in nutrition and deficiency symptoms, and may not be familiar with how often they occur in Celiac disease.  B12 and Vitamin D can be stored for as long as a year in the liver, so not having deficiencies in these two vitamins is not a good indicator of the status of the other seven water soluble B vitamins.  It is possible to have deficiency symptoms BEFORE there's changes in the blood levels.   Ask your doctor about Benfotiamine, a form of thiamine that is better absorbed than Thiamine Mononitrate.  Thiamine Mononitrate is used in many vitamins because it is shelf-stable, a form of thiamine that won't break down sitting around on a store shelf.  This form is difficult for the body to turn into a usable form.  Only thirty percent is absorbed in the intestine, and less is actually used.   Thiamine interacts with all of the other B vitamins, so they should all be supplemented together.  Magnesium is needed to make life sustaining enzymes with thiamine, so a magnesium supplement should be added if magnesium levels are low.   Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  There's no harm in trying.
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

      By lizzie42 · Posted

      Neither of them were anemic 6 months after the Celiac diagnosis. His other vitamin levels (d, B12) were never low. My daughters levels were normal after the first 6 months. Is the thiamine test just called thiamine? 
    • knitty kitty
      Son's legs shaking

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Yes, I do think they need a Thiamine supplement at least. Especially since they eat red meat only occasionally. Most fruits and vegetables are not good sources of Thiamine.  Legumes (beans) do contain thiamine.  Fruits and veggies do have some of the other B vitamins, but thiamine B 1 and  Cobalamine B12 are mostly found in meats.  Meat, especially organ meats like liver, are the best sources of Thiamine, B12, and the six other B vitamins and important minerals like iron.   Thiamine has antibacterial and antiviral properties.  Thiamine is important to our immune systems.  We need more thiamine when we're physically ill or injured, when we're under stress emotionally, and when we exercise, especially outside in hot weather.  We need thiamine and other B vitamins like Niacin B 3 to keep our gastrointestinal tract healthy.  We can't store thiamine for very long.  We can get low in thiamine within three days.  Symptoms can appear suddenly when a high carbohydrate diet is consumed.  (Rice and beans are high in carbohydrates.)  A twenty percent increase in dietary thiamine causes an eighty percent increase in brain function, so symptoms can wax and wane depending on what one eats.  The earliest symptoms like fatigue and anxiety are easily contributed to other things or life events and dismissed.   Correcting nutritional deficiencies needs to be done quickly, especially in children, so their growth isn't stunted.  Nutritional deficiencies can affect intelligence.  Vitamin D deficiency can cause short stature and poor bone formation.   Is your son taking anything for the anemia?  Is the anemia caused by B12 or iron deficiency?  
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

      By lizzie42 · Posted

      Thank you! That's helpful. My kids eat very little processed food. Tons of fruit, vegetables, cheese, eggs and occasional red meat. We do a lot of rice and bean bowls, stir fry, etc.  Do you think with all the fruits and vegetables they need a vitamin supplement? I feel like their diet is pretty healthy and balanced with very limited processed food. The only processed food they eat regularly is a bowl of Cheerios here and there.  Could shaking legs be a symptom of just a one-time gluten exposure? I guess there's no way to know for sure if they're getting absolutely zero exposure because they do go to school a couple times a week. We do homeschool but my son does a shared school 2x a week and my daughter does a morning Pre-K 3 x a week.  At home our entire house is strictly gluten free and it is extremely rare for us to eat out. If we eat at someone else's house I usually just bring their food. When we have play dates we bring all the snacks, etc. I try to be really careful since they're still growing. They also, of course, catch kids viruses all the time so I  want to make sure I know whether they're just sick or they've had gluten. It can be pretty confusing when they're pretty young to even be explaining their symptoms! 
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