Rescission Prevents Fraud? Rescission Is Fraud.
If you’re not familiar with the word rescission, this is the practice of canceling policies because people didn’t reveal a preexisting condition. And it’s one of the key reasons why the health insurance companies can claim that there’s $100 billion in health care fraud every year.
Here’s one example of what they consider fraud…
“They said I never mentioned I had a back problem,” said [Sally] Marrari, 52, whose coverage with Blue Cross was abruptly canceled in 2006 after a thyroid disorder, fluid in the heart and lupus were diagnosed. That left the Los Angeles woman with $25,000 in medical bills and the stigma of the company’s claim that she had committed fraud by not listing on a health questionnaire “preexisting conditions” Marrari said she did not know she had.
By the time she filed a lawsuit in 2008, she also got a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and her debts had swelled beyond $200,000. She was able to see a specialist by trading office visits for work on the doctor’s 1969 Porsche at the garage she owns with her husband.
That’s rich, eh? Can’t afford medical bills so she has to trade services for it…to work on the doctor’s vintage car. If that’s not a symbol for everything that’s wrong with how we buy and pay for health care in this country, I don’t know what is.
Of course, finding cases of “fraud” is a lucrative business and the insurance companies are making sure they identify all they can. But sometimes they get caught…
In the past 18 months, California’s five largest insurers paid almost $19 million in fines for marooning policyholders who had fallen ill. That includes a $1 million fine against Health Net, which admitted offering bonuses to employees for finding reasons to cancel policies, according to company documents released in court.
To me, rescission is a patently immoral practice that amounts to private rationing so insurance companies can make more money. Not just make money. Not just stay in business. They are offering BONUSES to people who find fraud.
Folks, the “death panels” are here and while the insurance companies consider rescission a way to identify fraud in their system, I think this entire practice of finding ways to cut people from their insurance (especially in their most vulnerable hour) constitutes a systematic fraud on the public trust and it MUST end.
And that’s why, if we achieve nothing else in this health care fight, we should at least make it illegal for insurance companies to cut people from their policies because of preexisting conditions. That’s THE most important reform measure in this debate, and I hope those of you who continue to push the public option realize that.
Here’s the question: Would you trade a public option for doing away with rescission?
(Photo: Getty via Dayilfe)
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Are we going to have to settle for such trades? I hope not and fear so.
But isn’t that trade worthwhile if it’s a decision between that and nothing? Government participation is SO much less important to me then doing away with the preexisting condition clause. That is THE problem and I’d much rather have that than have a public option.
[...] a comment » Justin Gardner describes health insurance policy rescission as tantamount to fraud, and I have to say that I also despise the practice. Not because it is innately immoral in theory, [...]
This is a good example of why private business should not be permitted to stand between people and their healthcare providers. A corporation’s first obligation is to make a profit. In this line of business, that is accomplished by not covering the costs of care whenever possible. As long as what the government is attempting to do is reform health insurance, rather than improve the availability and affordability of health care, we will never get what we need. The health insurance industry is immoral and destructive. Rooting it out and preventing a recurrence of this infection stands a better chance of resulting in a healthy populace.
We are sitting at the table and we know the problems and we have an opportunity for solutions. It is not a negotiation over which problems to solve, we are not selling cars we are trying to solve problems that have enormous consequences. American companies move to Canada and Ireland to escape our out of control health care costs. No other industrialized country in the world allows its citizens to be driven into bankruptcy and divorce over health care costs. No other country allows insurance companies to deny care for profit. Think the companies won’t find a loop hole around preexisting conditions? Think again. Think private industry will reduce costs or reduce competition with predatory mergers? These guys hide behind corporations when they should be put in jail for denying coverage. Lets be clear insurance companies are the problem and unless congress mandates strict regulation on practices and profit this citizen is going to demand a public option or co-op and if it does not happen the ballot will be my weapon.
So libtree09…you’d vote who out of office specifically? The folks who are trying to get change or the people who aren’t?
This reform purity is maddening to me, especially when Obama ran on being bipartisan. It’s like you’ve forgotten everything he built his historic win on and are now saying, “Well, now that we’re in power…”
Poz26, this is a needed first step. Subsequent steps will follow, but for right now the important part is making sure insurance companies cover everybody, contain costs and are taxed. And if they can’t get everybody covered during a certain period of time, a trigger for a localized public option is appropriate.
Look Justin I have been in lots of negotiations and the first rule is to bargain in good faith. If the person you dealing with goes out and smears your position or your good name or is revealed to be a fraud you do not keep negotiating. It has a legal term that negates even the contract if signed: Bad Faith Negotiation.
And you should understand that if you have a beef with some say, insurance company, you odds on getting the agent or president of the company to see your point of view is difficult if not impossible. But in government by the people we can throw the bums out and have through out our history done just that. You think my one vote is meaningless? You can laugh but the end of Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, Woman’s Rights, Medicare, Social Security all came from maddening reformers with voters behind them. Cynicism and so called realists gave us Bush and Cheney so you can sit on your ass comfortable in your own smugness and nothing, nothing will come of it. My vote, my small contributions, my pen, my shoe leather are the only weapons I have and they will have to do.