Special Report - Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage

Special Report - Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage

in.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.

Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Couldn't find this anywhere on ATS, but I thought it would be important considering the current healthcare goings-ons.

Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell's case reveal that Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were cancelled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.

There was evidence that Fortis' general counsel insisted years ago that members of the rescission committee not record the identity of the persons present and involved in the process of making a decision to rescind a Fortis health insurance policy," Nettles wrote.

Elsewhere in his order, Nettles noted that there were no "minutes of actions, votes, or any business conducted during the rescission committee's meeting.

Another example (conveniently timed) of why exactly health care should never have been privatized in the first place. This health insurance company created a specific computer algorithm to target diagnosed HIV patients and find any (whether legal or not) reason to drop their policy.

Once the patient was identified by the algorithm and an "excuse" was found, a secret committee met to drop their policy, without recording the information of any individuals who did so, or taking any account/meeting minutes of the situation so there was no paper trail that could hold anyone accountable for the slow and premeditated murder of a human being.

This is undoubtedly what will happen if we keep the status quo for healthcare without comprehensive reform.

But my question to conservatives that believe tort reform and cross-state competition is the silver but to healthcare reform:

How do you solve problems like this without regulating the insurance industry? Was this 19 year old college student greedy for getting 10 million in damages from a company that literally tried to murder him to protect its profit? How would cross state competition solve situations like this? Rescission is an extremely common practice in the healthcare industry, how do you protect individuals from becoming perishable variables in a computer algorithm without extensive government oversight?.

in.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

We do indeed need healthcare reform. Too many people are falling through the cracks or getting screwed.

reply to post by Night Star


No, we need health COST reform. Why is it that we have to rely on the health insurance industry in the first place????

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
reply to post by Night Star

 

No, we need health COST reform. Why is it that we have to rely on the health insurance industry in the first place????

Health cost reform comes with health care reform...they are one in the same.

That has no real bearing on this situation anyway. A private company is, by its nature for profit, and a health insurance company will always be for profit. If they were some how making 25% less than now because of reduced costs, then it's arguable situations like this would be far more common than they are now (without federal oversight) because they'd be trying to make their margins with less income.

Unless I'm not understanding what you're trying to relay?