A
Anonymous
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Since Health Care Insurance Reform is such an issue now- last night I watched the House hearings on Health Insurance Companies- and their practices....If anyone gets a chance to watch a replay on C-SPAN I advise you do so...
Rep Stupak (D) Michigan always runs a great hearing-- and they had several people/cases where people had insurance with one of these Blue Shield/Blue Cross's or other Health insurances that are provided by one of the major 3-4 big insurance companies in the country (who are then affiliated with another parent company- complicated as hell)--and then when they got a major illness,- breast cancer, hodgekins disease, etc.- the companies went back thru their application and claimed they found information they hadn't provided and dropped their insurance....In the case of one lady it was 3 days before a double masectomy-- another was when a fellow had only a 15 day window to begin expensive blood marrow transplants...
Congressman Bartos (R) Texas had helped one of the witness's get a review of her claim- and reinstated so she could get the masectomy she needed-- but by the time he was able to do that, the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and she is now taking chemo...
The Congressmen found that these companies list between 2,000 and 4,000 small print reasons they'll cancel your insurance- and thats whats been happening whenever they see a major claim coming in...
Some - like those testifying, fight it--but as the consumer advocate reported- many don't know how to and just go off and die...Thousands and thousands are dropped every year that way when they file a major claim....
And that once you are dropped by one company- you can never get individual insurance again...
They really chewed into the insurance CEO's when they found in the records one company had rescinded 4500 policies when claims were filed- but was forced by the state of California to reinstate them- and fined $25 million in California alone in the last couple of years...As Stupak noted- if they've done this to 4500 people in California alone (a state with strong insurance protection laws) how many have they done this to around the country :???:
And especially when they found that companies were paying their agents bonus's and rewarding them when they could dig up something to rescind the policy after someone had filed an expensive claim....
Comically altho they claim their forms are simple and easy for all to fill out- when questioned by Stupak-- the CEO's couldn't answer many of the questions that were on it .... :shock:
Congressman Dean (R) SC called it Fraud...Said that when a contract is written, they should be forced to honor it...That insurance companies should check out an applicants info before issuing the policy- and once issued should be forced to stand by it...He said these companies, in their greed, are forcing the government to get into their business or regulate their business...He really hit them on the ads they put out "come join our family"- but then the minute you get sick and need them they go digging for a way to kick you out on the street....
When the insurance companies could come up with no real answers Congressman Burgess (R) Texas- who is a Doctor, told them that he does not support a public insurance plan being promoted by the Administration-nor does he support the government making it mandatory that everyone have insurance (which the insurance companies want ) but that if the insurance industry can not come up with some answers to this problem- there will need to be a public plan as an alternative for all these that they let drop thru the loopholes and then won't insure- and government will write/enforce some strict regulations on these private companies....
Rep Stupak (D) Michigan always runs a great hearing-- and they had several people/cases where people had insurance with one of these Blue Shield/Blue Cross's or other Health insurances that are provided by one of the major 3-4 big insurance companies in the country (who are then affiliated with another parent company- complicated as hell)--and then when they got a major illness,- breast cancer, hodgekins disease, etc.- the companies went back thru their application and claimed they found information they hadn't provided and dropped their insurance....In the case of one lady it was 3 days before a double masectomy-- another was when a fellow had only a 15 day window to begin expensive blood marrow transplants...
Congressman Bartos (R) Texas had helped one of the witness's get a review of her claim- and reinstated so she could get the masectomy she needed-- but by the time he was able to do that, the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and she is now taking chemo...
The Congressmen found that these companies list between 2,000 and 4,000 small print reasons they'll cancel your insurance- and thats whats been happening whenever they see a major claim coming in...
Some - like those testifying, fight it--but as the consumer advocate reported- many don't know how to and just go off and die...Thousands and thousands are dropped every year that way when they file a major claim....
And that once you are dropped by one company- you can never get individual insurance again...
They really chewed into the insurance CEO's when they found in the records one company had rescinded 4500 policies when claims were filed- but was forced by the state of California to reinstate them- and fined $25 million in California alone in the last couple of years...As Stupak noted- if they've done this to 4500 people in California alone (a state with strong insurance protection laws) how many have they done this to around the country :???:
And especially when they found that companies were paying their agents bonus's and rewarding them when they could dig up something to rescind the policy after someone had filed an expensive claim....
Comically altho they claim their forms are simple and easy for all to fill out- when questioned by Stupak-- the CEO's couldn't answer many of the questions that were on it .... :shock:
Congressman Dean (R) SC called it Fraud...Said that when a contract is written, they should be forced to honor it...That insurance companies should check out an applicants info before issuing the policy- and once issued should be forced to stand by it...He said these companies, in their greed, are forcing the government to get into their business or regulate their business...He really hit them on the ads they put out "come join our family"- but then the minute you get sick and need them they go digging for a way to kick you out on the street....
When the insurance companies could come up with no real answers Congressman Burgess (R) Texas- who is a Doctor, told them that he does not support a public insurance plan being promoted by the Administration-nor does he support the government making it mandatory that everyone have insurance (which the insurance companies want ) but that if the insurance industry can not come up with some answers to this problem- there will need to be a public plan as an alternative for all these that they let drop thru the loopholes and then won't insure- and government will write/enforce some strict regulations on these private companies....