So does the House/Senate bill actually protect us from rescission?
‘SEC. 2712. PROHIBITION ON RESCISSIONS.
‘A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall not rescind such plan or coverage with respect to an enrollee once the enrollee is covered under such plan or coverage involved, except that this section shall not apply to a covered individual who has performed an act or practice that constitutes fraud or makes an intentional misrepresentation of material fact as prohibited by the terms of the plan or coverage. Such plan or coverage may not be cancelled except with prior notice to the enrollee, and only as permitted under section 2702(c) or 2742(b).
The House Health Care Bill and Senate Amendment from OpenCongress.org
Apparently not. Keep reading...
As insurers use 'fraud' as their excuse to rescind policies already, and as this bill places the burden on individual states to investigate rescinded policies (with their understaffed and underfunded resources), how does this change anything at all?
California already finds it impossible to investigate and resolve illegal rescission cases, let alone enforce fines against the largest insurers. (That's right: Anthem Blue Cross is too big to be sued!)
The truth is that no one, regardless of the level of 'fraud' they've perpetrated, should be denied health CARE, because that is the point of all of this insanity, right? Health CARE, rather than simply health insurance coverage. If you have cancer and you failed to disclose that you had been treated for cancer ten years ago, does that mean you no longer need treatment? Does it magically cure you? No. Since we are a moral, upstanding nation (we are, right?), then we should not let anyone be denied care regardless of what they did or did not disclose on their insurance application.
But of course we are not a nation driven by morals, but rather by greed. To have a for-profit health insurance industry is already immoral, but to also encourage that industry to be unjust and cruel is, frankly, outrageously heartless. As it is, with no anti-trust regulations, we have in our future less and less options and more and more large, too-big-to-be-sued corporations in charge of the administrative end of our health care. Where does that leave us? In a Banana Rescission Republic, where the rights of the corporations trump the rights of the people. Rescission banana, anyone?