Another Health Insurer Caught Falsely Cancelling Thousands of Health Plans

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/10/1254596/-Another-Health-Insurer-Caught-Falsely-Cancelling-Thousands-of-Health-Plans

Following the report that Insurer Humana was fined $65,000 in Kentucky for sending out 6,500 misleading cancellation letters for low-premiums plans only to be automatic re-enrollment in high cost plans before these customers were given a chance to shop on the open exchange for a better and cheaper plan - we now have a new report that Anthem Blue Cross is being sued for tricking people into dropping their "grandfathered" plans.

Think that's bad, well this is even worse.

http://thinkprogress.org/...

“Blue Cross successfully enticed tens of thousands of its individual policyholders to switch out of their grandfathered health plans and forever lose their protected grandfathered status,” states the lawsuit. “Blue Cross concealed information about the consequences of switching plans and intentionally misled its policyholders to encourage the replacement of grandfathered policies.”
And more... http://www.ibtimes.com/...

The lawsuits, filed Monday in Superior Court, may signal an emerging customer pushback against the approximately 900,000 cancellations in California alone of individual health insurance policies that will take effect Dec. 31.

900,00 Cancellations. False Cancellations of plans that, which under the Affordable Care Act are "Grandfathered" and Don't Need to be Cancelled. The Insurance Companies are doing it to Scam their Customers into higher cost plans and away from the ACA Exchanges in a practice that violates State Law known as "Twisting". .

[Scuba]

1. Insurance company executives are mass murderers for profit.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth

[Victor_c3]

3. Wait a second. Is it being suggested that health insurance companies don't really care about people

they cover? That they view us as a (stupid) commodity that they can manipulate and fool into doing something that isn't in our best interest?

I find it hard to believe that a large corporation bent on profits wouldn't have my personal best interest in their heart.

[Heather MC]

7. I know right!

Must be a type-o

[Mass]

4. I am sure that the GOP will add something preventing those cancellations in their new bill.

Silly me! Of course not. This is not what the bill is about.

[kelliekat44]

5. None of the links work. I get message "Forbidden access." nt

[Heather MC]

6. Obama's Fault

His spidey sense should have kicked in. And he should have seen this coming!

[B Calm]

11. You beat me to it, lol!

[Heather MC]

13. Sorry Dude, you get the next one! Deal?

[Sunlei]

8. Blue Cross should be required to reinstate all who lost their grandfathered plan.

The agreement was the insurance company did not have to take NEW people into the grandfathered plans.

[pipoman]

9. OH NOES!

Humana has to pay a whopping $65k ! Holy Shit! How will they go on? What will become of one of the largest insurers? What a Shame that something like simple lying could so strongly endanger their future Success!

I have to believe that the cancellation was valued significantly higher than $ 65K... hardly a deterrent for bad behavior... seems more like a gift than a Punishment.

[PATXgirl]

10. I have a question about the grandfathered plans. I'm currently insured with BCBS TX and

Have a decent plan at a reasonable cost. My 24 year old daughter is fully covered on this plan and I'm covered except for a permanent exclusion rider that excludes anything to do with my back because of a pre-existing condition.

BCBS TX told me first that if I stayed with this plan on grandfathered status, the exclusion rider would stay as well. The only way to get rid of the rider was to apply for a new policy...which has a deductible 3X higher and costs about $100-200 more per month, just for me.

Then they told me that the policy I have is not going to be available because of the ACA and I would be moved to a "similar" policy as of January 1, 2014, with higher premiums. They were able to tell me what the higher premiums would be but not the details of the policy yet.

I've looked on the ACA website but because it's TX, the only plans available are BCBS plans and no help with the premiums available (thanks and FU, gov Perry).

I'm really at a loss for what to do and BCBS isn't making it any easier.

[Bandit]

14. You need to check out the Federal Exchange since Texas refused to set one up

I am fairly certain you will find about sixty or seventy different plans to choose from on that exchange..

[PATXgirl]

15. The website I've gone to is healthcare.gov. Then it asks where I live and directs me to TX plans.

[jeff47]

16. If they move you to a new plan, it can't have the pre-existing condition.

whether it's an exchange plan or not.

Whether or not it can be grandfathered depends on a lot of not-obvious detail. For example, they could have technically moved you to a "new" plan with the exact same name, premiums and exclusions, but after the grandfather cut-off date. It would look like the same plan to you, but it's technically new and thus can't be grandfathered.

There's really no way for any of us to know if that kind of thing happened, or if your old plan can truly be grandfathered. And BCBS isn't going to make it easy, since they'd like to charge you more money. Your best bet would probably be to get BCBS to explain exactly why the old plan can't be grandfathered - that would give you a lead into whether or not they're bullshiting to get you to buy a more expensive plan.

Assuming you want to keep the old plan.

And yes, it's a pain in the ass. Describe this pain in the ass to everyone you know, and be sure to point out Perry and the Republicans are the ones making it hard for you. Many of us in other states have no such difficulties with the exchanges.

[PATXgirl]

17. Thanks for the info. I've talked to BCBS several times and sometimes get someone who just says "No"

to everything. The other times, I get people who know less about the ACA than I do. Wonder if they hire those people for a reason? (eye roll) Even having to pay $100 or so more a month, it's worth it to get rid of that freaking rider since the only health problem I've had for the past 5 years is related to my back.

I definitely point out all the positives about the ACA every chance I get and that the few negative things I've encountered is greedy insurance company policies. Most of my friends won't even bring it up because they know which side I'm going to be on.

In fact, my husband, who leans to more conservative way of thinking, was against Obama & the ACA. They just got their new insurance rates last month for the company that he works for and because dealing with the group insurance policy is one of his duties, he had the information on costs and plans. He brought them home so I could look at them. Much lower rates than they have had in the past 5 years. I made sure I pointed out to him that they could go from a plan with a $2500 deductible to a better plan with a $1000 deductible and still save $35K+ next year. He was very surprised and admitted that maybe the ACA was a good thing.