Company tells 128-year-old man he's too old for insurance

He is among the world’s oldest men, but cannot get what he needs most — medical insurance cover.

Computers are frustrating Mzee Julius Wanyondu Gatonga’s efforts at getting the cover under the National Hospital Insurance Fund.

He is deemed too old for the system, since his ID indicates he was born in 1884; the computers only accept birth dates from 1890.

For this reason, efforts by his family to have him covered under the NHIF hit a snag; his age is beyond the NHIF computer system, so his application to be a member was rejected due to his age.

SOURCE

Life expectancy is increasing worldwide thus I think that more situations like this may happen. Biggest problem however will be the pensions system that may lead to the social security collapse, sooner or later, if things doesn`t change.

I live in Portugal. This country is getting so "old" that there are more retired people now than the ones still working. This worries me a lot coz most certainly social security will go bankruptcy when I reach retirement age and I won`t have any money when I need it most !!!

SMH what is insurance for I guess to pay the big companies who MADE it and make the BUSINESS THRIVE ON THE HEALTH OF OTHERS, SAD. Never understood the age and health rates associated because it basically is saying once your too old or unhealthy you on your own?

reply to post by AQ6666


They should give this man ANYTHING he wants !!

To live that long, is a blessing. To see the things, he has seen.


S&F

128? That is some age You would think if ever you stretched to that age and paid taxes your whole life you would have earned the right to the proper treatment, a massive kick in the false teeth.

I would have thought this guy would make for an excellent marketing campaign, big company should get him on board put him in an advertisement etc. Not the ideal situation but atleast he gets the cover.

reply to post by AQ6666


This seems very suspect... According to all sources I can find this is the oldest living person in the world, at 116 years old.

Oldest living person, American Besse Cooper, celebrates her 116th birthday
According to Guinness World Records, Besse Cooper, of Monroe, Ga., is only the eighth person to ever reach the age of 116. She was born in the same year as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Further searches seem to suggest that I'm not the only one skeptical - from MSN:

There are countless reasons to get rejected for insurance coverage, but being too old is a new one. Mzee Julius Wayondu Gatonga says he's 128 years old -- and Kenya's National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has a serious problem with that, since the fund's computer system only accepts birth dates as far back as 1890. We have issues with it too, if only because the "official" oldest living person celebrated her Guinness-approved 116th birthday this week. Mzee Wayondu's age is unverified, hence he, sadly, doesn't even get a mention on Wikipedia's "Oldest People" page. In any case, NHIF says it can't fix the problem, but we hope they find a way to fix it fast -- Wayondu might not be 128, but he sure looks old.

I suspect that this story is either faked or severely factually distorted - deliberately or otherwise. Old people sometimes lose track of time and it's possible that this guy is younger than he states. His wife is 89. I'd guess his age is probably more realistically somewhere in the 90's.

I remain doubtful.

~Heff

There are 3 sides to every story, looks like we are waiting on the right one then

Think about it... he will most likely die soon.. and company have ot give away free money.. of course they not gonna do it, its a business.

ok here is the third side then

latino.foxnews.com...

reply to post by sonnny1


I totally agree with you

reply to post by Hefficide


Well maybe you`r right, I don`t know

There is a picture of him showing an ID card with the year 1884 on it. It can be fake or not !? ....and the one that is 116 years old is (or was) only the oficial oldest man in the world KNOWN so far

I think this case is interesting because of three factors.

First off I want to say I'm interested because the theory behind age-determination has a way of determining a very exact age of a person born before the nuclear age. It involves radioactivity in some special cells. It's pretty hard, but doable. It's fairly complicated, but it's doable.

Second thing is that this is more of a problem that computers are not able to cope with reality. Here in Norway we have new laws that have not gone into effect because of computer-systems. We revised huge parts of our penal code, but we couldn't get it working with the system.

Third, I think this might become the norm. Old people getting older. Maximum age is always fascinating for us humans.

reply to post by AQ6666


I imagine that in rural areas of an African nation, documentation standards probably aren't quite as rigorous as they are in more industrialized places. I think it's possible that this gentlemen might simply think he's that old, due to memory loss or slight dementia and just told the ID issuing authority that he was born in that year. A pencil pusher might not bat an eye over something like that. Numbers, especially subtraction on the fly, is something many people aren't good at ( Ever give a cashier a bit of change along with a large bill - to try and avoid getting a bunch of singles back as change... and then watch the cashier go into mental vapor lock? ). I think many people, when faced with somebody of advanced age, if told a date like 1890, might just shrug and think "Seems right" without even bothering to do any math.

It's also possible that this gentleman, or his towns governance, or any other feasible list of suspects, might be toying with things to generate a bit of publicity...

I'm not debunking or throwing any water on the fire... Just being cautious. I've been sucked in by too many stories on ATS - emotionally speaking - and then felt crushed when someone else came along and saw an inconsistency that I'd missed, unraveling the whole thing.

~Heff

I wanna know what his diet is like?

128? that's crazy. I bet he has never had a BigMac.

reply to post by Hefficide


...Very possible what you say and I know what you mean

The fact is 128 years is a lot ...it would make me a child, LOL