Here's the kind of insurance company abuses that the Republicans in Congress apparently have no problem seeing continue.
Vietnam vet Ronald Flanagan has been battling cancer for more than two years. Two weeks ago, Flanagan was getting prepped for a bone biopsy at the local Exempla Rock Creek Medical Center. But at the last minute, his wife called the hospital and told them to stop the procedure because she had just received notice that they no longer have insurance. The reason why? The couple had accidentally underpaid their insurer by two pennies and it decided to drop them from their plan...
In a statement provided to a local news station, the couple’s insurer, Ceridian Cobra Services, explained, “Since the payment was not full, it fit into the definition in the regulations of an ‘insufficient payment’ … Ceridian understands nothing is more important than one’s health.” Local station ABC 7 interviewed the Flanagans about their plight. “I felt that it was all my fault,” said Mrs. Flanagan, who made the accounting error, choking back tears.
There are protections in the Affordable Care Act to prevent these kinds of abuses, including increased appeal rights for patients. But many of those protections apply to plans offered after September, 2010 and not to older policies. Flanagan should be eligible for care under the Veterans Administration, but that would entail changing course midstream in cancer treatment, not to mention that he paid for his private insurance, all but two cents of it.
TP makes an excellent point. The real solution to prevent these kinds of ongoing abuses is "to offer . . . access to a public, not-for-profit system like Medicare, which has a higher approval rating than private insurance, runs more efficiently than any private insurer, and that most Americans want to be able to join."