Stupid Health Insurance Company

Today we received the final bill for Zachary's hospitalization in Dec. $15,079.56. Guess what? Our health insurance company doesn't want to pay it. Why? Because they don't know if we had health insurance for 12 months PRIOR to it. WHAT?????? What the hell difference does it make whether or not we had insurance BEFORE this? We had it, paid in full on the day he went in to the day he got out. Just to be clear..... We have never NOT had health insurance. From the moment Mike has ever worked, or for that matter, that we have ever been ALIVE, we have had health insurance. Zachary has been covered by one health insurance or another since the day he was conceived. The day Mikes employment started with this new company was the day they started covering him, and all of us. That was the day we canceled our policy with United HealthCare. We made sure of it before we canceled United. But what I don't get is WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE???? Preexisting conditions? Does that mean that if he was ever treated for something that the new insurances are able to deny us coverage if he needs to be treated for it again? What happens if Mikes employer changes insurance companies? If Zachary has another asthma attack they wont pay? We are supposed to choose between going broke or our health? What is the country coming to? Thank God it was only 15 thousand +. We could somehow cover it, but what if it was 150,000? We could lose everything. But the point is we have insurance for a reason. To cover us if we become sick. We pay our premium every paycheck. What good does that do if they aren't going to cover things at their own whim? Mike was on the phone yesterday for HOURS trying to get down to the bottom of it. (that in itself is a freaking joke. How come nobody has LIVE people to talk too?) It seems like it has come down to us needing to show PROOF that we had coverage for 12 months prior to this. OK, so we finally got someone to fax us a HIPA report. That is basically a letter from United Healthcare to our current provider stating that he/we had health insurance for 12 months before. We are just waiting for the next excuse to arrive. "Sorry your sons hair was too blond, so we cant pay your bill". This is truly a sad sad thing happening in our country. I'm sure for every family like ours, there are thousands and thousands getting the same run around.