Things That Just Piss Me Off

Your insurance company can cancel your policy at any time. They don’t even need a reason. Thyey may give you some bs reason just to hide what they are really doing, but it is you who gets the shaft.

In insurance, rescission is the termination of a contract from the beginning (as if it never existed). The insurer has the right to rescind a policy due to concealment, material misrepresentation, or material breach of warranty.

That can be anything at all that was omitted from your application, even if it’s an ommission that was not asked for by the person who sold you the insurance policy. Their lawyers have all kinds of ways to rescind your contract and they can get away with it by law.

So let’s say that an insurance company has statistics that prove that most people do not make a claim on a specific thing until about 10 years into the policy.

They can start finding ways to rescind all 98 year old policies or as many as possible, knowing that during those first 9 years they collect a lot more than they pay out. Also knowing that they do not make as much after that 10 years.

So, you as a consumer pays into that policy for 9 years faithfully, then they drop you. They got their money. Now you are on your own.

Insurance companies are all about theiur bottom line and are not here to help you. Anyone that has had to file a claim and learned how the insurance companies try to deny or hold up payment of the claim knows this.

It is way past time for insurance reform in this country. Insurance companies are no longer the beneficial giants that help us in a crisis. They are mega corporations only concerned with how much money they can make and how they can profit from fear and misery.

Blue Cross Blue Shield wants you to believe they are going to stop doing this;

Blue Cross of California Responds to Recent Media Coverage of Rescission

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Feb 23, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — Blue Cross of California is committed to being the industry leader when it comes to protecting those seeking health insurance. That’s why in September of 2006, Blue Cross was the first health care insurer in California to implement a series of steps to strengthen and make more transparent our process for rescinding policies in order to further minimize the possibility of errors.

These initiatives included:
— Creating a new simplified application for individual benefits policies
— Revising policies to clarify the initial underwriting process
— Forming a new committee structure for the rescission review process
— Adding dedicated liaisons for members undergoing retrospective review
or who have had their policies rescinded
— Revising documentation to improve the accuracy and consistency of
review processes
— Enhancing training programs for the underwriting and the retrospective
review processIn addition to these steps, for the past several weeks Blue Cross has been in the process of developing an outside third-party review process for all rescission cases. This means an independent, outside agent will help us validate whether rescission of a member’s benefits is warranted. Blue Cross will be bound by the decision of the third-party reviewer. As the market leader in California, this practice is intended to further our efforts to protect all health care consumers.

Rescission, a tool designed to protect the system from abuse, affects a very small percentage of new enrollments — roughly one-half of one-percent out of 300,000 new applicants a year. Blue Cross takes the issue of rescission very seriously, and we are leading the industry in working with legislators, regulators, providers and our members to help improve the access to health care for all Californians.

Leslie Margolin

President

Blue Cross of California

SOURCE Blue Cross of California

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