Crying on the Interweb
August 7, 2009
So yesterday on the drive home from work, I was listening to an episode of This American Life on my ipod. This American Life usually has a few stories that it covers during its hour, and one of them caught me unaware as I coasted home. I love TAL and I’m often touched by their stories. But this one had me in tears.
It was about a little known Senate hearing that took place just recently (I suggest you listen to the broadcast, since I can’t convey the tragedy of it here, the link is above) wherein Senate panels discussed a healthcare practice called “rescission” with the CEOs of 3 major insurance companies.
You see, if you have private insurance, and you contract one of 1400 expensive illnesses, the insurance company will go back through your application with a fine toothed comb and “rescind” your insurance when they find something amiss (which they somehow, always do). For instance, one man who had contracted cancer I think had his policy rescinded when the company found that the insurance salesman who had sold him his policy had written his weight down wrong and neglected to show it to the man to confirm.
The insurance companies make their forms intentionally difficult to fill out so that when a person gets an expensive illness, there’s always a reason to rescind. The interesting thing about the senate hearing was that this policy is so heinous, that reps on both sides of the isle were audibly outraged. They sound disgusted with the CEOs of the companies. One Republican from Texas even tells the CEOs he’s on their side in terms of health reform, but that if they’re going to do something this evil, he can’t help them.
The part that really got me was the testimony of a woman who was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer. She needed an immediate double mastectomy. When she went to get her surgery approved, the company went through her application and decided that a “dermatitis” she had reported when she applied had been pre-cancerous and so her cancer was deemed a pre-existing condition. The woman then had her dermatologist call the insurance company and the doctor begged them to not cancel the woman’s policy. He said the dermatitis she had reported was nothing more than acne and he could prove it with her medical records. The insurance company was unmoved and it ended up being months before the woman could get her surgery. By then the cancer had grown sizeably.
To think that it’s leagal for insurance companies to let you pay your dues for years and then, when you need the insurance, revoke it is complelety ludicrous – but it is in fact legal. Luckily this hearing seemed to enrage both GOPs and Dems and recission is likely to be outlawed as a part of the new healthcare legislation.
