There are quite a few people who work in the health-insurance industry, and I’m sure they don’t like being criticized by politicians and pundits. And I’m also sure that in their personal lives, most of them are kind to small animals and friendly to their neighbors. But for whatever combination of reasons — the need for increasing profits being the primary one — they engage in practices that are positively evil. Via Paul Krugman, Murray Waas tells us this heartwarming story. It seems that if you have your health insurance with Assurant Health, and you get diagnosed with HIV, they make a special effort to find a pretext to cancel your insurance, also known as “recission.” We’ve known about people having policies rescinded after diagnoses of cancer and other illnesses, but this is the first time we’ve heard of a company targeting those with HIV:
Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell’s case reveal that Fortis [now Assurant] had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.
Among other things, the health-care reform that might pass Congress and be signed into law this weekend will ban rescission, one of the most vile corporate practices ever devised. If reform fails, of course, the insurance companies will continue to rescind the policies of people whose care they’d rather not pay for, up until the day it’s finally outlawed. Just a little reminder of one of the many issues at stake in this reform.
— Paul Waldman
