latimes.com — Facing a torrent of criticism Tuesday, Blue Cross of California abruptly halted its practice of asking physicians in a letter to look for medical conditions that could be used to cancel patients' insurance coverage.
Feb 13, 2008 View in Crawl 4
sinnsFeb 14, 2008
Maybe?!?
woollymittensFeb 14, 2008
Some things are better not privatized. Healthcare and public transport are two examples.
chuymattFeb 14, 2008
Can you sponsor me?! I wanna have that too!!
microbefoxFeb 14, 2008
I guess no one got or even read the memo. For shame
arghblargFeb 14, 2008
It's a myth that Canadians' tax rates are so much worse than Americans. US private healthcare interests love perpetuating this myth, as it keeps people afraid of positive change. See <a class="user" href="http://strickland.ca/taxes.html">http://strickland.ca/taxes.html</a> for just one page on the topic.Yeah, Canada's ecnomy is just doing SO badly due to the overwhelming burden of their healthcare... not.
hobophobeFeb 15, 2008
Let's be clear about why they are doing this.Insurance works on the principle that a bunch of people pay a monthly fee and some minority actually need the coverage at a given time. They have actuarial tables and reams of stats and data to balance to make that system work. If they do not have accurate data about their customers, the system fails. That means their existing customers are potentially screwed over by their new customers.Now, California's law says basically that if the insured party withholds/does not disclose a preexisting condition that would either cause higher rates or possibly denial of insurance altogether, the insurance company is still responsible for insuring them.That is akin to if you're the people in the story from a few months back that bought a house "secretly" full of mold, you have no recourse against the fraudulent sale.Do NOT get me wrong here, I believe there is a crisis of health coverage in this country that needs resolving. I also don't think that an insurance company should act as they did in this case. But it is important to understand why they did this. It is due to a broken system, broken law in California that allows fraud, and poor judgment on the part of this insurance company.
nsresponderFeb 16, 2008
" saying that the insurance companies would not be asses if they were deregulated is a little foolish"What you're failing to recognize is that the insurance companies have steadily used regulation to exclude their competition. That regulation should not exist, and insurance companies should be exposed to competition like other business are.-jcr