You get insurance to cover you in case of illness or pregnancy. What does Blue Cross of California do when your condition changes? Cancels your coverage!

Blue Cross of California systematically violates state law when it cancels health insurance policyholders after they get pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether the consumers did anything to merit such harsh treatment, a scathing investigation by state regulators has found.
[snip]
Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to systematically cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they intentionally lied on their applications to cover up pre-existing medical conditions, a standard required by state law for canceling individual policies. Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations and found violations in each one.

The state of California is fining the company $1 million as a result. Not that that will help the hundreds of people who lost their coverage.

I’d like to meet the people who worked in the “dedicated department” whose sole purpose was to cheat honest people out of their insurance. I’d ask them if how they slept at night.

In separate news, scientists have found a physical basis in the brain for empathy. Maybe the members of that Blue Cross department would benefit from a little surgery. — MARK ASHLEY

Blue Cross fined $1 million for canceling policies [LA Times]
(Photo: net_efekt)

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