BlueCross BlueShield will cover you—after you die

This Friday, it’ll be one year since my father’s death.

Good thing BlueCross BlueShield agreed to cover his healthcare costs . . . after he died.

Last week, I received a letter from Horizon BlueCross BlueShield, the New Jersey division of this national federation of healthcare insurers. It was addressed to my dad and signed by Robyn Gantt, a doctor in Jersey City who never met or treated him.

First, it listed my dad’s ailments — “you had symptoms of disorder of blood vessels, heart problems, bone problems, tobacco use” — which, it scolded, “would have motivated a prudent individual to seek medical attention during the period of 07/01/08 and 01/01/09.”

It goes on to accuse him of “deferring medical attention until after the effective date of your policy.” Thus, it concludes, “these conditions are not eligible for coverage under your policy until 05/15/09.”

He died on May 14, 2009.

Let me backtrack. As some of you might remember from my anguished posts back then, my father, an American, lived in Japan until late 2008. After my Japanese mother died, my three siblings and I made the decision to move him closer to us. Those symptoms for which a “prudent individual” would have sought medical attention? He did — in Japan.

Though my father was a 75-year-old U.S. citizen and thus eligible for Medicare, a quirk in the system allows expatriates and other seniors who heretofore declined Medicare to sign up just once a year (remember this, children of seniors: make your parents apply upon eligibility at 65 even if they live overseas or otherwise don’t need the coverage). He would have been covered from July 2009. We needed short-term coverage until his Medicare kicked in.

All of this I explained in detail to the sales agent from Horizon BlueCross BlueShield, who was only too happy to sell us the insurance in February 2009. The policy was crappy; premiums cost about $500 a month, and he had a hefty deductible to boot. And no claim ever processed smoothly. It was a duct-tape policy: it just had to get us through a few months.

Dealing with health insurance is never a picnic, but for us adult caregivers of elderly parents, it’s like some Satanic merry-go-round that never, ever stops. Even after they’re dead. We just paid a hospital bill for Dad that BlueCross fought for a year, telling us the overnight stay was due to a preexisting condition. Pneumonia. Six grand.

And just yesterday I opened up the mail to two more documents from BlueCross, the ones labeled, “Explanation of Benefits,” which you comb with dread to find the line: “Subscriber Responsibility.” Another $1,865.

The whole idea behind the Obama Administration’s healthcare reforms was to extend affordable health insurance to everyone. Sure, the premiums were more or less affordable. But considering all the claims the insurer denied and how much we wound up paying out of pocket, my father would have been better off without insurance at all.