Blue Cross praised employees who dropped sick policyholders

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OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Originally posted by: ericlp
It amazes me to know that the honest tax payer (are there any left)... Finally paid off the house, car and credit cards. Living the Dream and paying for health care for the past 30 years... Starts having problems. Well, no duh! He's old, so he goes in for heat trouble and get's denied claims and the insurance companies drop him. Now that he has no where to turn since he/she is not old enough to get medicade, they are going after his house and what other money is has saved up in his bank to help pay for his care. Meanwhile... Lazy Drugies and illegal's are abusing the system. They ain't got jack and getting a free ride thanks to the honest Tax payer that is footing the bill! Sheesh, talk about a catch 22.


Insurance companies drop people all the time. This is nothing new. If they don't drop them the will not earn profits and wall street will punish them for it. This is all about greed and corruption. They aren't looking out your their policy holders they are looking at trying to line their own pockets.

Oh well, maybe we all should just drop our health insurance and say "fuck it" until they can figure out a plan that works for everyone. I don't mind paying and I choose to pay with kaiser. I'm sure they drop people too tho, I haven't heard of it. Tho, I'm sure there are some loop holes in any plan. Just some a LOT worse then others.

I guess when you get old the best thing you can do is sign your house into a trust or sign it into a healthy kids name that you can TRUST. I have thought about this ... Anyone know of what to do with a house that is paid off so that greedy doctors and lawyers can't take it away from you?

:thumbsup: yip that is exactly how it works and its just plain out wrong. nobody should lose their house because of a medial condition. nobody should lose thier life savings because of a medical condition. there is something wrong with the system when you work all your life and in a 3 day hospital stay will totally clean you out. A old person should not be made to chose between medication or food or utility bill. I took care of my mom in her last 3 years of life and i know first hand how expesive the monthly medication bill can be. thank God she had AARP and Medicare plan-D for prescriptions.

even with her insuance around august she would run out of the covered plan and we would have to pay full price for her meds until Jan. i would often think how many people out there are in worse shape than her. the current system is broken period. please oh please let one of the defenders of our current system try to tell me that is is nothing wrong with it..

all you people who have not faced a chronic medical condition that generates monthly medical bills have no fricken clue what you are talking about. until you are in the shoes of somebody who is suffering month to month keep your damn mouth shut.


 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
Originally posted by: RPD
When was the last time our government, when it involved money came out in the black?
Do government-run fire departments turn a profit?
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Motion for title change.

No where in the article is there mention of such thing, only charges and there is no proof of such in the subtitle. This is conjecture. Change the topic summary.

"The committee investigation uncovered several rescission practices that one lawmaker called egregious, including targeting every policyholder diagnosed with leukemia, breast cancer and 1,400 other serious illnesses."

No mention, no source, conjecture. Change it now.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Originally posted by: spidey07
This honestly sounds like VERY disingenuous journalism and reporting. The reporter is drawing a hole crapload of conclusions with no source (not surprised, it is the LA slimes).

If employees were rewarded on their review for saving the company money via canceling policies that should not have been canceled then OK, you have a point. Canceling polices that should have been canceled then you don't. But this article has nothing but conjecture and hearsay to push an agenda devoid of facts.

20,000 policies canceled over a 5 year period. 4,000 policies per year doesn't seem like such a big number anymore, now does it? WHY were they canceled?


4,000 policy cancellations in one year is a pretty big number in my book. especially if it is somebody i know or love.

there was a PBS special about this a few months back that was very interesting. this practice is wide spread and unethical. hell even the CEO of Blue cross and blue shield of some state if forget which one is on tape admitting to it and he also agrees that it is unethical. he reports to the board and if he doesn't make a profit guess what he gets canned. i do not remember the special i watched while on a business trip in my hotel room. im sure if any of you want to dig on the PBS website you can find it.

 

rchiu

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2002
3,846
0
0
Can we have a formal process, a department something with real power working with justice department to look into these accusations and prosecute guilty people?

These are serious charges. If insurance companies are found doing these, people responsible should be put in jail and the company should be fined big time. At the same time, we don't want politicians and media to sensationalize this and make a big deal using skewed data, rumors and innuendos.

By the way, insurance company can and is justify in canceling the policy if the applicant lied about his/her medical history when applying for the policy. We do need a process to protect applicants from these kind of accusations. Like having a medical checkup and doctor's endorsement of health/condition as part of the application process to prevent any future disagreements.
 

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: spidey07
This honestly sounds like VERY disingenuous journalism and reporting. The reporter is drawing a hole crapload of conclusions with no source (not surprised, it is the LA slimes).

If employees were rewarded on their review for saving the company money via canceling policies that should not have been canceled then OK, you have a point. Canceling polices that should have been canceled then you don't. But this article has nothing but conjecture and hearsay to push an agenda devoid of facts.

20,000 policies canceled over a 5 year period. 4,000 policies per year doesn't seem like such a big number anymore, now does it? WHY were they canceled?
4,000 policy cancellations in one year is a pretty big number in my book. especially if it is somebody i know or love.

there was a PBS special about this a few months back that was very interesting. this practice is wide spread and unethical. hell even the CEO of Blue cross and blue shield of some state if forget which one is on tape admitting to it and he also agrees that it is unethical. he reports to the board and if he doesn't make a profit guess what he gets canned. i do not remember the special i watched while on a business trip in my hotel room. im sure if any of you want to dig on the PBS website you can find it.
Was it this one?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/...ickaroundamerica/view/

EDIT: Just finished watching it. Great documentary.
 

theeedude

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,198
126
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: spidey07
This honestly sounds like VERY disingenuous journalism and reporting. The reporter is drawing a hole crapload of conclusions with no source (not surprised, it is the LA slimes).

If employees were rewarded on their review for saving the company money via canceling policies that should not have been canceled then OK, you have a point. Canceling polices that should have been canceled then you don't. But this article has nothing but conjecture and hearsay to push an agenda devoid of facts.

20,000 policies canceled over a 5 year period. 4,000 policies per year doesn't seem like such a big number anymore, now does it? WHY were they canceled?


4,000 policy cancellations in one year is a pretty big number in my book. especially if it is somebody i know or love.

there was a PBS special about this a few months back that was very interesting. this practice is wide spread and unethical. hell even the CEO of Blue cross and blue shield of some state if forget which one is on tape admitting to it and he also agrees that it is unethical. he reports to the board and if he doesn't make a profit guess what he gets canned. i do not remember the special i watched while on a business trip in my hotel room. im sure if any of you want to dig on the PBS website you can find it.

That's 4000 in one state.
 

Phokus

Lifer
Nov 20, 1999
22,994
779
126
Originally posted by: senseamp
told you they would defend it

:laugh: motion for spidey07 to shut the hell up.

Seriously, this guy is deranged. I don't think he's ever shied away from defending such stupid an immoral positions.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Originally posted by: her209
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: spidey07
This honestly sounds like VERY disingenuous journalism and reporting. The reporter is drawing a hole crapload of conclusions with no source (not surprised, it is the LA slimes).

If employees were rewarded on their review for saving the company money via canceling policies that should not have been canceled then OK, you have a point. Canceling polices that should have been canceled then you don't. But this article has nothing but conjecture and hearsay to push an agenda devoid of facts.

20,000 policies canceled over a 5 year period. 4,000 policies per year doesn't seem like such a big number anymore, now does it? WHY were they canceled?
4,000 policy cancellations in one year is a pretty big number in my book. especially if it is somebody i know or love.

there was a PBS special about this a few months back that was very interesting. this practice is wide spread and unethical. hell even the CEO of Blue cross and blue shield of some state if forget which one is on tape admitting to it and he also agrees that it is unethical. he reports to the board and if he doesn't make a profit guess what he gets canned. i do not remember the special i watched while on a business trip in my hotel room. im sure if any of you want to dig on the PBS website you can find it.
Was it this one?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/...ickaroundamerica/view/

EDIT: Just finished watching it. Great documentary.

yes that is the one.
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
9,306
4
81
They're a business doing what it takes to maximize profits for their shareholders nothings to see here.
 

ayabe

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2005
7,449
0
0
Yep and here we are with the Blue Dogs killing the public option, R's are handing out high fives to their industry friends - once again lobbyists win and WE LOSE.

We have more than a few regular P&N'ers who work in the insurance industry, I'd love to hear their explanation of this. It's not like this hasn't been brought up before, but it's been dismissed as a few isolated cases here and there.

It's not, it's systemic, people are getting screwed.

 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
They're a business playing with peoples lives to maximize profits for their shareholders nothings to see here.

fixed
 

nobodyknows

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2008
5,474
0
0
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I think we should keep the current system but with the stipulation that anybody working in health insurance claims should have to have a special flag on their house and wear a badge so people will know who to spit on and where to dump their garbage.

Only anonymity allows these titanic assholes to make money on the backs of denying the sick health care.

Trust me. If they had to wear a badge there would be no way in hell that any company would insure them for anything.

Badge??? Surely you meant to say "target"?? ;)
 

fornax

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2000
6,866
0
76
Originally posted by: Slew Foot
Woooo so the government will deny me coverage instead of the insurance company. Whup dee f'n do.

I see the family brain cell is currently used by someone else.