It's no surprise that many Americans fall through the cracks of the US healthcare system. Like in the case of the 63-yr-old Texan ex-manager who suffered a heart attack, he's no longer covered by employment, is technically too wealthy for Medicaid, too young for Medicare, and yet cannot afford private insurance; I believe about 19% of uninsured Americans fall in a similar category. A recent study by Gilmer and Kronick of UCSD projects that the number of uninsured Americans will increase by almost 7 million by 2010.[1] This doesn't even take into account the number who will become uninsured due to job losses, so the number will be even greater. But just because someone is insured doesn't mean he or she is receiving quality medical care. How do we account for access to care, and access to quality care?
I was extremely surprised to learn that many health insurance companies practice retroactive policy cancellation. From the business end, I suppose it makes sense. The company not only protects itself from fraud, but it saves a lot of money. A June 2009 report by NPR stated that from 2004 to 2009, there have been approximately 19776 policy rescissions by three large insurance companies, and this saved them some $300 million.[2]
Here's an interesting article called Insurers: To Rescind or Not to Rescind? that provides greater insight into why insurers practice this, what it means for their insured population if they don't practice it, and the weaknesses of this practice.
The reality of how rescission is actually practiced, however, only goes to show how little corporate moral responsibility exists. Is there nothing is in place to protect consumers from having their policies cancelled, or if and when they are cancelled? Usually when you make a contract with a company, you have to pay a fee or a fine to break the contract. Interestingly, when it's the other way around, the consumer gets absolutely nothing back. And it's almost always the consumer who suffers the consequences.
[1] http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.28.4.w573
[2] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105680875
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Hey Jess!
ReplyDeleteI'm also really concerned about insurance companies having the ability to rescind health policies retroactively because there aren't as many regulations put on insurance companies as there should be or at least the guidelines for rescissions should be made more clear. I'd like to hope that it isn't an "us vs. them (insurance company)" issue though because afterall, many of their CEOs aren't even covered under individual private insurance (if they were to stop their work) which struck me. What the hell right?
I just wanted to clarify medicare and medicaid. Medicare is the policy where you have to be 65 and Medicaid is the policy for lower SES individuals.
Loved your post! :)
-alex