Nets ignore testimony of cancer patient denied coverage by insurer (MediaMatters)

[eppur_se_muova]

In May, 2008, Robin Beaton, a retired registered nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, went to her dermatologist to be treated for acne. He mistakenly wrote down something on her chart that made it appear that she might have a pre-cancerous skin condition.

Not a big deal, right? It shouldn't have been, except that soon after that, she was diagnosed with something far more serious -- invasive and agressive breast cancer. Three days before she was scheduled for a double mastectomy, her insurance company, Blue Cross, called her and told her they were launching an investigation into the last five years of her health records. It turned out that dermatologist's note had been a red flag, and the company was looking for a way to cancel her policy on the grounds that she had been hiding a serious medical condition.

What Robin went through after that was a nightmare, one she tearfully described Tuesday morning in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee. "The sad thing is, Blue Cross gladly took my high premiums, and the first time I filed a claim and was suspected of having cancer, they searched high and low for a reason to cancel me," said Robin, whose hair is just beginning to grow back in from chemotherapy.

The subcommittee took a look today at an immoral -- and illegal -- practice in which some health insurance companies engage. It's called post-claims underwriting, and you should know about it. Because you or someone you love could be a victim if they buy insurance on the individual insurance market. Robin got her mastectomy, but only after her congressman, Joe Barton, leaned on the head of the company. (This is constituent service, in the very best sense of why we elect these guys. But the best thing they could do is to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone's constituent.)
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more: http://mediamatters.org/research/200906220028

[lesliewhitebird]

1. This is why I am in favor of abolishing insurance companies altogether!

I just don't think that a health care plan will work otherwise. To allow these unethical businesses to continue to operate and think that somehow, someway we can have universal coverage AND keep them in business and happy about it, strikes me as absurd.

[elehhhhna]

2. the life ins. policies with "no medical exam!" they pitch on tv? SAME DEAL!

They KNOW the average 50+ year old is going to fail to list SOMETHING on their app's. -- and, of course, some insureds flat-out lie on their app's -- so they take the payments then decline to pay after a post-death exam of medical records. IIRC, if(when) they decline to pay benefits, they give back the premium dollars less admin fees -- the interest on which they, of course, keep.

Sleaz-y.

[noiretextatique]

3. sadly...this could have happened to me

i detected a lump in my breast when i didn't have insurance. i saw a doctor and she told me to have a mammogram, but i knew i couldn't have a mammogram and face possible surgery (i had two previous benign tumors) without insurance. so...i waited for about six months until i got a job and had insurance. this time it was breast cancer. if i had been diagnosed before i got insurance, i the insurance would have considered my cancer a pre-existing condition. because i waited i was stage 2 invasive ductual carcinoma. i had a lumpectomy and radiation, and i am fine now, two years later. if i had taken care of it earlier, i might not have needed radiation, which cost $100k for 20 zaps :wow:

a friend of mine was diagnosed with uterine cancer a few months before she was covered by insurance on her job. they made her wait 6 months to cover her surgery because her cancer was pre-existing condition. do you have any idea what it's like to wait 6 months knowing you have cancer in your body? :wtf: how can anyone justify treating human beings that way?
luckily she had a slow-growing cancer, so she was fine after the surgery.

our current insane system just doesn't make sense. it only makes dollars for insurance companies.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. CALL THE NETWORKS, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

I'm glad Robin Beaton took this to COngress. However, families, communities need to start rallying and taking this to the streets.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Strangely, I recall seeing this on our *local* news -- not network news.

And MediaMatters was the most prominent link I found by Googling.