Profits Before Patients
Submitted by Dr. JG Kaplan on Mon, 2009-06-29 08:40
"Rescission" can be defined as when an insurance company deprivies a patient of a benefit or service by backing out of a insurance contract, i.e., by deeming that contract to be no longer legally binding. You might wonder how in the h_ll insurance companies can pull the rug out from patients; one way is for them to speciously nit-pick about undisclosed pre-existing conditions.
- A "Texas nurse....lost coverage after a diagnosis for aggressive breast cancer. The reason? She had not disclosed a past visit to a dermatologist for acne." She was "denied coverage on a Friday last June for a mastectomy planned for that next Monday. By the time the congressman got the company to reinstate the policy, it was October. The tumor had doubled in size and the surgeon had to remove all the lymph nodes in the woman's arm."
- A man with stage four non-Hodgkin's type lymphoma lost his coverage as he was about to receive a stem-cell implant. The company pounced because a doctor had once noted in the patient's file that a scan had shown a small aneurysm and some gallstones. The doctor had not informed the patient.
"Insurance industry not worthy of trust" (The Boston Globe). Note: I read this piece in the Times Herald-Record; posted June 29, 2009.
Based upon such shenanigans, would you trust the health care insurance industry to act responsibly and cover the uninsured? For those who cannot arrange job-based insurance coverage, should we be insulating private insurers from market place competition that would come from a Medicare-like public option?
Do I have knowledge of such unethical practices from my own experience? Not in over thirty years as a medical director, but that ended for me over 8 years ago. (How do these people sleep at night?)
Call your congress-person; I'm calling mine.
Love your topics. This one
Love your topics. This one especially.
We began a charity that gives money to cancer patients who have no means to afford life-saving care.
We recently found the link that Obama had on his blog that gives Americans a chance to tell their story. Because the person died whose circumstances led us to create this charity, we added her story posthumously.
See it here: www.hugsandkissesinc.org. I believe there are ways we can help each other.
Look forward to following your updates.
Hugs and Kisses
Wow! a notable reply from
Wow! a notable reply from "Hugs and Kisses, Inc.," a non-profit charity run by teens. They "raise funds for local cancer patients with desperate financial needs."
Read some of their "Health Care Stories for America"--facinating, while frustrating. But with every adversity, there's an opportunity.
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