INFANT STRIKES BACK AGAINST AHIP
INFANT STRIKES BACK AGAINST AHIP!
Big Health Insurance Industry First Besieged at DC Conference, Now Slammed on Internet by Baby
In New Web Video from Americans United for Change, Spokestoddler Defends Comrades-in-Diapers Who Were Denied Coverage, Told by Insurers They Were “Too Fat” or “Too Skinny”
Pro-Health Insurance Reform “Patriot Baby” Calls Out AHIP’s Karen Ignani by Name, Challenges His Status In Utero as a “Preexisting Condition”
Click Here to View Web Video: “Too Fat? Too Thin? Do Insurers Hate Babies?”
Washington D.C. – “Patriot Baby,” a pint-sized health insurance reform advocate, took to the Internet today to condemn the health insurance industry’s outrageous practice of refusing health coverage to infants for being “too fat” or “too skinny” in a satirical new Web video launched by Americans United for Change.
Patriot Baby relates the story of 4-month-old Alex Lange, who became a baby-in-the-news when he was refused medical insurance because he weighed 17 pounds. Rocky Mountain Health Plans – a member of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the health insurance industry lobby -- deemed Alex too overweight for coverage. Alex’s story drew national attention - and the ire of Patriot Baby.
“Too fat?!?! You cannot be serious!” Patriot Baby says in the video, channeling the fury of tennis greatJohn McEnroe. “He’s a Baby! What’s he supposed to do - go on The Biggest Loser?” he continues, referring to the popular NBC reality program where obese adults compete to lose weight.
Lange’s story was soon followed by news that another infant was refused coverage for being underweight. Aislin Bates, 2, of Colorado was refused coverage by United Healthcare Golden Rule because she weighted 22 pounds, despite being healthy.
The ad’s title refers to both cases – “Too Fat? Too Thin? Do Insurers Hate Babies?” – and the juxtaposition of the two cases demonstrate the absurd arbitrariness and unfairness of how health insurance industry treats infants.
Patriot Baby also calls out by name Karen Ignagni, President of America's Health Insurance Plans, in reference to the anti-baby practices of many insurers regarding pre-natal care and pregnancy.
“Did you know some insurance companies consider pregnancy a preexisting condition?!?!? Hey, Karen Ignagni! A few months ago, I wasn’t any preexisting condition! I was just a six-pack and a glint in my daddy’s eye – if you know what I mean,” the toddler-activist says with a playful wink.
The web video comes the day after hundreds of health insurance reform supporters and Americans victimized by insurance company practices protested outside a national AHIP conference at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC – and the same week that Americans United for Change began airing this television ad spotlighting the story of Peggy Robertson, a mother-of-two who was told by an insurer that in order to get coverage, she would first have to get sterilized.