Health Net ordered to pay $9 million to cancer patient

[Celebration]

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSWNAS215720080223

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California arbitrator ordered Health Net Inc to pay $9.4 million in damages and expenses for what he described as "reprehensible" conduct in canceling the policy of a cancer patient after she fell ill, according to documents made public on Friday.

The award to Patsy Bates, 51, included $8 million in punitive damages and raised concerns about the company's practice of retroactively canceling policies of individuals who make large claims and paying bonuses to underwriters for meeting cancellation targets.

Health Net said in a statement that, while it does not agree with some of arbitration judge Sam Cianchetti's conclusions, it will immediately adopt a review process for all policy cancellations.

The multimillion-dollar punitive damages award, the first in a so-called recision case, is sure to send a message to other large health insurers who face lawsuits over the practice, said Bates attorney William Shernoff.

"Let's see if these other big health carriers will change their practices, then we will have done something," Shernoff told Reuters. "Until this punitive damages award came down, nobody was doing anything."

[Lint Head]

1. This is standard practice in the insurance industry. I know from

personal experience. That is why they are so against socialized medicine. Death and pain means profit for insurance companies. We live in a culture of death. Making something die is the answer to all problems in our country, be it war, insurance or putting old people out to pasture because 'new blood' is needed. :dem:

[DFW]

3. Even some governments think this way, too

In Germany, a member of Parliament was nuts enough to say this in public:
that there should be no restriction on smoking anywhere in Germany, because
cigarettes not only raised a fortune in taxes for the government, but they
killed off the population quicker, so that government payouts for health care
for catastrophic illnesses were reduced due to patients dying at a faster rate.

Even the tobacco-friendly German press didn't give that one a free pass.

[lolly]

2. Trying to understand this business model

OK, I'm trying to figure out how the insurance company business model works.

They tell you "send us money (we tell you how much) every month in exchange for us paying your medical bills." Only when you have medical bills, they don't pay them. If anyone complains, they're accused of being anti-business socialists trying to take away the hard-earned money of the insurance companies.

I think I'll open an online store. Lots of pictures of great products. I'll say, "send me some money, I'll send you this product." Then I'll just pocket the money. If anybody complains, I'll whine that they're cutting into my well-deserved profits and my shareholders' dividends, and accuse them of being commie sympathizers.

Really--they've been getting away with refusing to deliver a product they've been paid to deliver. How do I get on on this deal?

[LiberalEsto]

4. This is why we need trial lawyers

It also explains why the corporations so desperately wanted "tort reform" to cover their asses.