insurance Diep

lauren83

I had a mastectomy of the right Breast with a DIEP reconstruction at the same time. A year later, I had a follow-up operation to adjust the size and symmetry of the breast. The skin flap was removed as well. My insurance, Axa (with which I was insured fully for cancer cover), didn't want to cover the cost because they claimed that it was a cosmetic procedure.

I feel that it is immoral for Axa to consider that procedure only cosmetic and not as cancer cover. Women who are going through surgical body changes and an emotional rollercoaster must be treated with dignity and respect and not discarded as if it were vanity.

I am writing this post to make women who are going through this challenging time aware that Axa Insurance does not consider the second part of a Diep as a cancer treatment. Apparently, the other insurance covers this procedure.

I am not a fool, and I know that expecting morality from insurance sounds naive, but if women unite together and try to fight it, we can change the future of breast cancer for women.

moderators

Hi @lauren83, and welcome to our Community!

We're so sorry for the reasons that bring you here, but we're really glad you've found us. You're sure to find our amazing community a wonderful source of advice, information, encouragement, and support — we're all here for you!

Thank you for sharing your challenges with insurance covering your corrective surgery. We thought this page from our site might be helpful to provide some advice on navigating this part of your care:

https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/breast-reconstruction/paying-for-reconstruction

We hope you find this helpful! Please let us know if there's any other info we can provide to you or how else to support you.

Welcome again,

—The Mods

maggie15

Hi @lauren83, I'm sorry that your health insurance doesn't follow WHCRA rules. As the mods said, some types of health insurance are exempt. To add to your warning, many people have health insurance cards that make it look like they are covered by a large national insurer but are not. I had insurance from a self insuring state employee program that was just administered by Blue Cross / Blue Shield. I discovered that you need to research the details of your plan since those just administered but not funded by a major insurance company sometimes have different rules and are not subject to oversight by state insurance regulatory departments.. All the best.

lauren83

Thank you Maggie for your comment . it is very helpful.