insurance recission

[Guest guest]

I would like to thank " LiveSimply " for bringing this matter to our attention. In

reading some of the stories through the link in her post, to the L.A. Times

archive, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of depravity and pure evil, on

the part of health insurance companies. I thought they could sink no lower, in

my estimation, than when they refused to authorize a brain C.T. Scan for my 90

year old father. But, now they have hit a new low in moral degradation, by

refusing to pay for medical care that they had previously " authorized " . Who knew

that " authorization " did not guarantee payment for what had been " authorized " .

I just went on Medicare, and was actually still considering joining a managed

care H.M.O. for myself. My deepest thanks to " LiveSimply " for saving me from

making that suicidal mistake.

[Guest guest]

I must had missed this post...if someone has a chance, can they re-

post it?

>

> I would like to thank " LiveSimply " for bringing this matter to our

attention. In reading some of the stories through the link in her

post, to the L.A. Times archive, my eyes were opened to a whole new

world of depravity and pure evil, on the part of health insurance

companies. I thought they could sink no lower, in my estimation, than

when they refused to authorize a brain C.T. Scan for my 90 year old

father. But, now they have hit a new low in moral degradation, by

refusing to pay for medical care that they had

previously " authorized " . Who knew that " authorization " did not

guarantee payment for what had been " authorized " .

>

> I just went on Medicare, and was actually still considering

joining a managed care H.M.O. for myself. My deepest thanks

to " LiveSimply " for saving me from making that suicidal mistake.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Joe, its just part of the way we choose to finance healthcare.

If someone has a serious disease, sometimes treating it can get very

expensive.

The insurance COMPANIES are for-profit enterprises and they need to make a

profit to pay their employees and administrators. Some of the executives in

these companies make many millions of dollars a year, and if they insured

too many sick people, and lost money, they would not be able to pay them.

The way group insurance reduces its cost is by spreading the cost around in

a group of people, but if an individual applies for insurance, then the

amount that the insurance company decided to charge them is based on the

amount the insurance company thinks it is going to have to pay out, averaged

over the time that they expect to insure them, with a surcharge added for

administrative costs. So, its possible that someone with cancer might cause

tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the insurance company,

so they are going to figure out what it will cost, average it out over time,

and add their profit. Some Presidential candidates are hoping to enact laws

that will make them unable to turn away people- (if they can, trade

agreements we have signed may not allow it because it may be seen to

discriminate against some companies) so if that happens, they will probably

have to accept some profitable new clients who will have to then pay a LOT

of money to be insured, who would not be able to get any insurance AT ALL

today, at ANY cost. This is what they mean by " They will not be able to turn

you away " .

Then, if they have the money the insurers want, and are willing to pay it

for the peace of mind, they will be able to buy insurance. But it WILL cost

an amount of money proportionate to what their illness costs the company,

plus administrative costs.

(Insurance companies are for-profit companies. They are not entitlements.)

With this 'recission' issue, its easy to see what may have happened. These

companies are angry and suing those people for their money back because they

claimed that the people they dumped claimed to be healthier than they really

were, in order to get insurance. (Some of them are going to the trouble of

trying to hunt sick people down, in a sense, because when someone gets sick,

especially when they are really sick, then they are no longer profitable,

and increasingly, we are hearing these stories of insurance companies who

want out of their parts of their deals.)

Its similar to companies. If someone gets sick, and can't work, they often

get fired or laid off. Can a company really be expected to carry them on

their rolls forever, paying for their insurance?

Then they lose their insurance and often, cant get insured by anyone, at any

price.

In these cases, its pretty ugly. California is always ahead of the curve, so

things happen there first and get hashed out. Some counties are angry

because I am guessing that some of these people may have ended up in already

overflowing county hospitals, indigent, having lost everything.

The LA County attorneys office, I think, says that many of the people were

dumped from their coverage arbitrarily.

They are fighting it out in court.