[helmut_hed]

Your success in getting private health insurance may be due to the fact that you have "been approved for and paid for my own insurance for years". Bear in mind that the OP had group health insurance through her employer, and then tried to get private health insurance. I had much the same experience with minor things from the time I had group insurance being considered "pre-existing conditions" and justifying a denial of coverage.

After many long hours of paperwork and going through the appeal process (including getting letters from doctors certifying that my minor ailments were unlikely to require expensive surgery) I now have private health insurance. I never would have imagined it would be this hard.

[sportsTAKES]

To clarify, I have been approved for private insurance at different times (three times actually) over roughly twelve years with intermittent times of receiving benefits from employers - I have worked off and on as an independent contractor during that time.