Insurers Dump Sick People. Well, Duh!

June 26th, 2009

Sometimes when perusing the news, there is a story that makes you say, “Well, duh!”. Actually, it’s becoming more and more common. In this article from The Raw Story, an ex-Cigna executive admits that insurers will use any little thing to cancel a policy if they feel you are going to cost them any money. For example, if you left out that you had a cold or the sniffles in the pre-existing period, they can use that against you. You’ve faithfully paid your premiums for years and now you have something serious that’s going to require them to spend some money, if they find out you had the slightest illness during the pre-existing period, they can use that to cancel your policy.

I agree that the health care system needs to be fixed, and I agree that it needs to start with insurance companies. They tend to raise premiums and lower coverage at the same time. My wife cannot get her insurance to pay for medically necessary anti-histamines because they say that Zyrtec and Claritin are now over the counter and she can buy those. Nevermind that she knows and her doctor knows that those do not help her and the only ones that do are the prescription pills she is taking now.

However, I do not agree that health care needs to be socialized. What is the answer? I don’t know, but I’d sure love to hear some ideas.