Best Health Care System in the World? Calif. fines Blue Cross $1 million

[ck4829]

State regulators fined California's largest health insurance provider $1 million for violating state law, saying an investigation found that the company systematically dropped policyholders after they became sick or pregnant, a newspaper reported Friday.

Officials with the Department of Managed Health Care said they hoped the fine would prompt changes at Blue Cross of California. They said they planned to conduct similar investigations into other large health insurance providers in the state, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The department's findings could expose Blue Cross to legal liability in dozens of lawsuits filed by consumers who allege their policies were illegally canceled.

The investigation found that Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they lied on their applications about pre-existing medical conditions — a standard required by state law. Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations and found violations in each one.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_bi_ge/blue_cross_fine

[Cleita]

1. The sooner we get these parasitic insurers out of the health

care business, the sooner we can get a meaningful national health program passed. This is nothing new. Insurance companies have been doing this for decades, dumping anyone who actually uses the insurance. It's time they got nailed for it. Of course, short term, they will make up their losses with increased premiums. This is why it's important to keep this issue up front with our legislators so that when that happens, people will have something else to fall back on like single-payer universal health care.

[PA Democrat]

2. A $1 million fine is nothing for a company that made

$3.09 billion in net profit last year.

[EC]

3. But this isn't the only state

Last month Chicago went after them for the same thing...front page about dropping of pragnant women and sick...this will hit state to state...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Lovely.

Good thing I'm past childbearing age.

Guess they don't want to pay that 15,000 to $20,000 for a C-section. After all, it's just saving a grown woman and a baby's life.