My insurance has a bariatric surgery exclusion....

Makes me so mad because I called them on 1/3/14 to make sure I had the benefit and they said yes. Then; the bariatric coordinator called and said that I have an exclusion....

So I guess I'm switching to self pay

Really makes me mad. I also called cigna today to double check and sure enough the lady said that it is excluded.

I'm thinking of doing a loan... anyone know of a bank specializing in these types of loans?

I had an exclusion as well and ended up being self pay. I was very fortunate to find a doctor in Boca Raton that charged me $10,500. This includes all tests, surgery, 2 day hospital stay and a year of follow up care with a nutritionist. He has had many people fly in to have their surgery and he did a great job! Dr. Shillingford you can google him if you want. Good luck with your journey!

Look up Care Credit.

Care Credit is 14% percent interest... with that rate i could put the surgery on my Amex without having to open a care credit account.

I guess I have a few options; open a 0% interest credit card; take out a personal loan; take out a 401k loan.

Basically that is my options.

I am 32 yrs old; good credit and a relationship with a great credit union; their rates are 9.9% for an unsecured personal loan.

Would love to hear how others have paid for their surgery?

I'm not above opening a new card if need be but I'm not paying 14% interest. I have about 20k in my brokerage account with wells Fargo; anyone know if you can borrow against that even though its not Fdic insured? I would sale the stock but I'm not legally allowed to do that until ive held them for a minimum of three years due to insider trading rules.

Care Credit is 14% percent interest... with that rate i could put the surgery on my Amex without having to open a care credit account.

I guess I have a few options; open a 0% interest credit card; take out a personal loan; take out a 401k loan.

Basically that is my options.

I am 32 yrs old; good credit and a relationship with a great credit union; their rates are 9.9% for an unsecured personal loan.

Would love to hear how others have paid for their surgery?

I'm not above opening a new card if need be but I'm not paying 14% interest. I have about 20k in my brokerage account with wells Fargo; anyone know if you can borrow against that even though its not Fdic insured? I would sale the stock but I'm not legally allowed to do that until ive held them for a minimum of three years due to insider trading rules.

I definitely would avoid Care Credit. I used them once for my dog who had to have extensive surgery and the interest rate goes up so I paid it off as fast as I could. There is definitely better ways to go. No offense to any who have used it though because if it was my last option for the surgery I would have done it!

Care Credit bad...Credit Union good. I got burned by Care Credit for a dental bill a few years ago. I am still hiding from them.

Agree with you; if it was the only option I would take it and feel glad.

I don't like the idea of opening a new credit card for the 0% interest..

Did anyone do this?

Income: 145k per year from wages; rental property; investment dividends

We owe on two houses and 1 car. 401k balance is approx 100k fully vested. We have 20k in stocks that cant be sold and 2 paid off cars 2008 and 2007 year models. 1 paid off boat.

I'm thinking that a personal loan wouldn't be a bad option. Would anyone here do a collateral loan to get a cheaper rate from the credit union? Collateral loans run about 7.9% interest but then your car or boat title has a lein.

Comments; suggestions?

By the way I told my mom and she was less than helpful. She suggested that I'm not fat enough for surgery and that I should use "freeze my fat" or just do another diet instead of making a permanent surgical change to my body.

I don't think she realizes that I'm literally 100 lbs overweight. I think its her form of denial

To me; my body and health is worth the cost

I'm not waiting until I'm so fat that I cant get around

Edited January 16, 201412 yr by webhopper

You can get a secured personal loan if you use that money from Wells Fargo as collateral. They'll loan against that so if you default, they'll seize it.

I have surgery next week and put all this stuff off til last week thinking id breeze thru with a loan no problem... I have 781 credit score, have paid off all loans early, golden right?! Yeah not so much! Long story short, The banker has fixed me up so I've got a personal loan, a credit card with the same interest rate, personal line of credit... And still not getting up to what I need yet. Will use care credit for the remainder if need be but ick I don't want to!! So stressful

Will wells Fargo let you take a loan against funds that are not FDIC insured?

Omg I hear ya; if I couldn't get a loan for what I needed I would cry!

Idk if wells will or not but my banker made it sound like his bank would use just about anything as long as there's a way they could seize it if the loan was defaulted on. This was at BMO Harris bank-- no clue if they're a regional bank or not lol. I didn't ask questions on it bc I just have my car-- 1 year too old to qualify and my house-- too long to wait for home equity loan to go thru

Have you thought about going to Mexico? I went and had a fabulous experience.

Well, I definitely did think of going to Mexico, my husband is definitely against it, because if there were a medical emergency when I got home, how would I get follow up care?

I will discuss again with my husband tonight but I think for us the answer is going to be that it's not an option.

Have you thought about going to Mexico? I went and had a fabulous experience.

Which surgeon did you use in Mexico?

withdraw from 401k w/o penalty

My policy through my employer also had an exclusion. I went outside of the employer plan and purchased an individual plan on my own through BCBS who covers Bariatric surgery without any problems. My monthly co pay was about $100 more a month but well worth it. Going this route I was able to not touch my 401k or take a high interest loan. In about six months when my company has open enrollment again and post surgery I'll jump back on their plan for lower rates.