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> Does anyone have details on how they sucessfully fought an insurance
> company and obtained insurance (especially medical).

I too, have a story about that.  I successfully managed to get my
insurance to the 'normal' risk level.  It took a phone call to the
salesman, from there to the company, and advancing up the levels, to the
person in the company who had the responsiblity and authority to
authorize such an 'irregular' case.  This guy did put up a fight,
explaining to me how they consider each case on an individual level, and
yet unable to explain to me how, then, was I not consulted when they made
the original decision, which was to put me in the same risk category as
people who are allergic to bee sting.

I asked him a simple question - how can you even compare between someone
who is allergic to bee stings, and upon being bitten (stung?)  by a bee
has about 5 mintues to inject himself or herself a drug to save his or
her life, and someone with a celiac who, if exposed to gluten, will
vomit?  He started mumbling about company policy and how this decision
cannot be overriden by anyone.  I asked whether the supreme court has
this power to overturn the decision, and mentioned that I will be backed
up by the few hundreds of thousands of people in the local Israeli celiac
support organization.  We then mutually agreed that maybe I do have a
case here, and that I will send him a letter from my doctor explaining
the risks and how good I was at staying away from gluten, and that will
solve everything.

I sent him the letter, and it worked.  A Few weeks later the change was
approved, retroactively - meaning that I got my money back for the year
that had passed until I found out about their policy.

My advice is - be tough.  They don't have a real case, they know it, and
you know it.  They will probably try to put up an initial tough front,
but that's just a mask.  Mention how you are part of an organization that
will just love to hear about the special treatment celiacs are getting
from the company - for better or worse!

Gal Kaminka
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