Dawn Smith, of Georgia, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor 4 years ago. Benign as it was, it still needed treatment as it was causing excruciating headaches, was located in a particularly sensitive area and difficult to get at. Her doctors recommended she seek treatment from several experts at the Cleveland Clinic, who had a record of successful treatment for this type of tumor. Her insurance company, CIGNA, refused because the Cleveland Clinic was outside their system. Logical enough, I guess, but more logical if they had actually had doctors inside their system with exceptional experience with this kind of tumor. So, Dawn struggled on with her debilitating headaches. She wrote politicians and public organizations with no results until MoveOn.org informed everybody on their very big mailing list about Dawns problem. Days later CIGNA reviewed her case and Dawn got to go to the Cleveland Clinic and an improvement in her condition, although she still required regular medication.
A small victory for the common citizen, thanks to MoveOn.org. But, no memory is so long as a scorned insurance company. Shortly afterwards, Dawns premiums were raised from, $366 to $750 per month. Dawn, 33 and still unable to work, getting around in her dead grandmothers wheelchair, had to keep making the payments, even if it meant delaying checking a bump on her breast for several months.
Thankfully, the bump turned out to be nothing more than a calcium deposit. Again, MoveOn.org sent out an e-mail and, again, CIGNA reversed their decision. there had been an error in classification and her premiums would not be increased.
But, insurance companies and elephants never forget. Four days later Dawn was told the medication she used to control headache pain was being increased from $10 every two-and-a-half-months to $1,115, and increase of over 1,100%. This time it was Huffington Post who jumped in. CIGNA backed down, saying that it was an error in the way her doctor had filled out the form.
The moral of this story? If you want fair treatment from the vengeful Sword of an insurance company you better have some really big Pens in your corner. Most folk don't. Read Dawns entire story here.
Or, perhaps, you could go to work for an insurance company. Surely, they don't eat their own. Or do they? Wellpoint Insurance has just announced they are cutting their employee insurance benefits for their 42,000 employees. They will keep the same insurance, but will have to pay more for it. Wellpoint, you may recall, along with United Health Care, illegally encouraged its California employees to lobby against health care reform. In an e-mail sent to their employees, encouraging them to write letters, said, "The proposals would hurt the company by causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan."
Well, yes....Duhhh! Beat a puppy long enough it will run to a better master.
Incidentally, WellPoint paid their CEO, Angela Braly, almost $10 Million last year. That works out to about $238 for each one of Wellpoints employees. Just an observation.Read more about Wellpoint and their employees here.
