Re. Bart Stupak (D-MI) held hearings in June of this year on the practice of “rescission”, wherein holders of individual insurance policies are told, after they become seriously ill, that the insurance company has canceled their policy and will not pay benefits. He uncovered over 20,000 cases of rescission by three major insurance companies in five years, and said that insurers routinely look to rescind policies if customers get sick with heart conditions or cancer, or 1,400 other serious conditions.
The practice logically stems from the concept of “preexisting conditions”, that device by which insurance companies avoid insuring people who might get sick, thereby protecting their bottom lines. People often lie about their health when they apply for insurance – it’s a no brainer: On one hand, they can’t get insurance, on the other, they only risk losing their insurance later. (I wonder if an insurance company, when it rescinds a policy, refunds all premiums paid.)
I was just listening to a radio show here in Colorado this morning on which a nurse called in, and said that while on the job she had developed breast cancer. She had insurance at the time, and recovered, but could no longer work as a nurse since she didn’t have that kind of energy anymore.
Guess what? Welcome to America. She’s had cancer. She can’t get health insurance. This is one f****** barbaric system we have here.
This reminds me of the supposed “death panels” the righties were all chirping about. When you carry private health insurance, if you get seriously ill, insurance companies look for ways to legally to kill you. They do this by exploring every legal (and questionably legal) avenue they can to rescind your insurance.
That is not a death panel. That’s a killing system.
Piece of Mindful 