Obama’s Complaint about WellPoint Rescissions Refers to Only Four People
President Obama said in the Saturday radio address that an insurer was “systematically dropping the coverage of women diagnosed with breast cancer.” Although Obama did not cite WellPoint by name, the insurer said that it was the subject of the reference.
WellPoint Chief Executive Angela Braly fired back: WellPoint spent nearly $2 billion in 2009 covering treatment for about 200,000 women with breast cancer and just four policies were canceled because of fraud or misrepresentation.
More on the rift between Obama and WellPoint here.
The behavior of the White House is scandalous. No president did anything like this since Harry Truman.
It’s as though the White House is desparate to find something in the bill people will like, no matter how small and irrelevant, to take attention away from everything people don’t like.
If I were running a business like health insurance, you can bet that I would be investigating patients with the highest claims for fraud. If WellPoint ran a property insurance business, we wouldn’t say much when it sent claims adjusters out to make sure a factory fire was indeed accidental.
What scares us is the fact that we’re dealing with a human life. “If person X does not get treatment, she might die.” We know that it doesn’t make complete economic sense, but we feel compelled to intervene, even though person X might have known that she had cancer before she bought the policy.
I agree with Virginia.
Virginia makes an excellent point.
In both situations, justice must be balanced with mercy.
I think what Obama is focusing on is the mercy part to the exclusion of justice.
Even God has those 2 main attributes, known as Chesed (kindness) and Gevura (strictness).
Should insurers be held to a lower standard?
Don Levit
I was going to say something here, but I’m still reeling from Don’s comment.
I think there is something sort of scary about a president — with all his power — singling out a private company in this very abusive wasy.
In the individual market, the business model of insurers is based on correctly interpreting risk. Premiums are priced according to the applicants expected costs, plus a small premium for administering and alleviating the risk.
High-risk individuals (i.e. those with pre-existing conditions) have a financial incentive to hide their true risk — hoping to receive more benefits from enrollment than their premiums costs.
When these individuals are discovered intentionally being deceptive on the policy applications, insurers rescind the policy. This would not be considered unfair if property insurers refused to pay when an applicant conceals the fact a fire had destroyed their building prior to applying for fire insurance.
Joe:
My comment was meant to provide some objectivity into this discussion.
Wanting to pay for another’s care, even if the agreement was fraudulent, is the natural human tendency.
Trying to say “What would God do,” rather than what would make me feel better, adds more objectivity, in my opinion.
Love without strictness is no love at all.
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Don Levit
[…] address. WellPoint’s response: The insurer paid for 200,000 cases of breast cancer last year and rescinded exactly four policies for fraudulent or misleading […]
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