Is pre-eclampsia considered a pre-existing condition ??

[sage1]

I had pre-eclampsia in my last pregnancy in April 2011 ... When I returned to wrk end of July 2011 I signed up for health benefits and disability insurance as it was open enrollment ... A few months later I found out I was pregnant again !! This time I am considered high risk so I was taken off wrk ASAP ... I've been on state disability since Nov. 2011 and have been paying my monthly wrk disability insurance, I just found out I have been denied !! I have never been diagnosed with any health conditions, only time I had high blood pressure was with the severe pre-e ... My blood pressure has been good since then ... I am now 30 weeks with no complications ... Getting close to meeting my lil guy soon !!!

So you don't know WHO or WHEN pre-eclampsia will effect !? I figured my disability is due to a high risk pregnancy ? Any advice pls help !!

[caryn]

Yes. It is also known to raise your risk of subsequent chronic hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune conditions and cardiac disease.

We're expensive.

[sage1]

Wow !!! That is sickening !! It's not enough punishment a woman having to endure pre-e and lose a child ... They have no clue to what causes pre-e or who gets it ?? That just blows my mind !! There are millions of woman who have some kind of complication while pregnant then that puts them in a high risk catagory the next time around ... So is everyone considered to have a pre-existing condition !? There are a lot of different things that can lead to diabetes, heart disease, etc. Also ???

This just makes no sense to me ?

[caryn]

They do have a preliminary understanding - And they know that women who have a history of preeclampsia are at higher risk of all those expensive conditions than the average woman, so some insurance companies will treat women with a history as... less cost-effective members of the insurance pool. Since we're expensive some exclude us from certain forms of coverage unless there are laws preventing them from doing that. I couldn't get individual coverage for pregnancy or hypertension when I tried it. I'd ask the HR people at your job and maybe a lawyer, depending on what the HR folks say.

Here's a link to our heart disease brochure: http://www.preeclampsia.org/images/pdf/ ... ochure.pdf

and our "cause of preeclampsia" page: http://www.preeclampsia.org/research-to ... eeclampsia