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Anthem Blue Cross uses bait and switch tactics

Anthem Blue Cross sued over higher medical insurance deductibles

By Duke Helfand
Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2011

For the second time in eight months, California health insurer Anthem Blue Cross is being sued over allegations that it has breached contracts with individual policyholders for hiking annual insurance deductibles in the middle of the year.

The latest lawsuit, filed Monday by the group Consumer Watchdog, says that California’s largest for-profit health insurance company used “bait and switch” tactics to raise deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for some customers May 1.

The lawsuit says the Woodland Hills insurer improperly changed policy renewal periods Aug. 1 from one year to one month, allowing the company to alter its benefits, co-pays and other costs repeatedly throughout the year.

Some of those Anthem customers have seen their annual deductibles rise in the middle of the year to $550 from $500, according to the consumer lawsuit. Other deductibles have gone to $1,750 from $1,500 and to $2,950 from $2,500.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-anthem-lawsuit-20111115,0,7684974.story

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross has found yet another way to shift insurance risk from itself to its beneficiaries. Individuals who purchased or renewed their health plans did so while assuming in good faith that their costs and risk exposure would be set for another year. No. Anthem Blue Cross included in the fine print the condition that these were only one month renewals, allowing them to change the terms of the insurance contract repeatedly throughout the year.

“Bait and switch” is a despicable business practice, and the nation’s largest insurer, WellPoint, is not above it. At the current rate of insurer consolidation, WellPoint’s plans will likely be amongst only a few choices, if that, in the state health insurance exchanges to be established under the Affordable Care Act. And surely the other insurers will adopt the same despicable practices in order to remain competitive.

Now the nation is awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the individual mandate that will tell us whether we will be required to purchase a plan from a selection of these despicable private programs or if we will have the right to remain uninsured – a right that many will exercise simply because these plans will be unaffordable, even with the proposed subsidies.

We wouldn’t have to tolerate the despicable behavior of the private insurers if only Congress would improve and expand Medicare. Medicare belongs to the people. We should all be able to benefit from it.

Despicable?

Despicable: “So worthless or obnoxious as to rouse moral indignation.”
(It’s the right word, so we should use it.)

Anthem Blue Cross uses bait and switch tactics

Anthem Blue Cross sued over higher medical insurance deductibles

By Duke Helfand
Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2011

For the second time in eight months, California health insurer Anthem Blue Cross is being sued over allegations that it has breached contracts with individual policyholders for hiking annual insurance deductibles in the middle of the year.

The latest lawsuit, filed Monday by the group Consumer Watchdog, says that California’s largest for-profit health insurance company used “bait and switch” tactics to raise deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for some customers May 1.

The lawsuit says the Woodland Hills insurer improperly changed policy renewal periods Aug. 1 from one year to one month, allowing the company to alter its benefits, co-pays and other costs repeatedly throughout the year.

Some of those Anthem customers have seen their annual deductibles rise in the middle of the year to $550 from $500, according to the consumer lawsuit. Other deductibles have gone to $1,750 from $1,500 and to $2,950 from $2,500.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-anthem-lawsuit-20111115,0,7684974.story

WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross has found yet another way to shift insurance risk from itself to its beneficiaries. Individuals who purchased or renewed their health plans did so while assuming in good faith that their costs and risk exposure would be set for another year. No. Anthem Blue Cross included in the fine print the condition that these were only one month renewals, allowing them to change the terms of the insurance contract repeatedly throughout the year.

“Bait and switch” is a despicable business practice, and the nation’s largest insurer, WellPoint, is not above it. At the current rate of insurer consolidation, WellPoint’s plans will likely be amongst only a few choices, if that, in the state health insurance exchanges to be established under the Affordable Care Act. And surely the other insurers will adopt the same despicable practices in order to remain competitive.

Now the nation is awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the individual mandate that will tell us whether we will be required to purchase a plan from a selection of these despicable private programs or if we will have the right to remain uninsured – a right that many will exercise simply because these plans will be unaffordable, even with the proposed subsidies.

We wouldn’t have to tolerate the despicable behavior of the private insurers if only Congress would improve and expand Medicare. Medicare belongs to the people. We should all be able to benefit from it.

Despicable?

Despicable: “So worthless or obnoxious as to rouse moral indignation.”
(It’s the right word, so we should use it.)