Health Insurance Scam

Tony B
tblizz@earthlink.net

The following story is factual information from a son.

Talk about criminals given government permission to screw the public. And employers joining in on the fleecing. If I ever look at a known insurance agent again it will be to take good aim when I shoot him.

Tony B.

When I first started working thirty-some-years ago, some companies provided me with a sort-of "benefit" called health insurance. This was provided free and I essentially ignored it. Later companies started giving a certain amount of money per paycheck, and had a list of options I could choose from. If I didn't use it for one of these options, I would lose it. Normally the cheapest option would cost what they were giving me, so it was a wash. Still kind-of a benefit. One that I never used, however.

Lately companies (my current employer included) "negotiate" a group price with an insurance company, and then consider that negotiation "the benefit". They pay nothing toward the actual cost of the insurance. My first two years of employment at my current company the price was relatively cheap for high deductible insurance and I didn't think much about it. The deductible was $3,800 per family member, before the insurance company would pay a dime. Most families don't have that kind of money lying around and those with sense don't go to mainstream medical doctors anyway. (Except for broken bones and that sort of thing.) They allegedly paid 100% for something they called "Wellness Checkups" (or some such horse manure term).

My wife got a check-up last year. Two doctors (homeopathic) and three labs were involved. Every one of them, when shown the insurance card and after checking the account online said, "You're a hundred percent covered". But United Health Care, our insurance company, didn't pay a penny. We got bills in the mail that tried to confuse us. They'd list the amount a lab test "would have" cost (for example $800, but their "negotiated price" was $200). Leaving us to pay (in this example) $200, when "Wellness Checkups" were supposed to be 100% covered. (By the way -- the company that health insurance "providers" use to determine the amount of "normal and customary charges" for medical procedures is owned United Health Care. That's obvious collusion, but our congresswhores allow collusion for insurance that provide health insurance and always have.)

I contacted the insurance shills at my company, (otherwise known as the benefits department) and they weren't really that interested. They gave me some happy horseshit about the labs and doctors "probably" didn't enter in the right code numbers and were pretty-much bored by the whole complaint. So lesson learned -- we have no insurance coverage -- we just have a company that takes money out of each of my paychecks with the cooperation of my employer. (United Health Care has been sued by several states, some, including New York, have won because United Health Care just doesn't pay legitimate claims. Also they have been charged by the Feds with racketeering (case pending).)

We had enough. Every November companies who "provide" insurance have something they call "open enrollment, where you select your insurance and other "benefits" for the coming year. The price of my unusable "health insurance" skyrocketed this year. (They also charge me extra because the five children who are still at home are considered two too many, so there's an additional surcharge.) During open enrollment I cancelled my so-called health insurance and printed out a record for my records.

The last two years I got confirmation in the mail about two weeks after open enrollment (beginning of December) asking me to verify that the information was correct before the beginning of the new year, (because, essentially on January 1st it was set in stone.) This year I didn't get a Confirmation Statement. On December 30th I received new cards from United Health Care welcoming us for another year of their "alleged" insurance coverage. The next day, December 31st, I sent a letter my "benefits" department, with a copy of my open enrollment selections (the one that they probably didn't think I printed out), clearly showing that I did not select "health insurance" and demanding that this "health insurance" be removed immediately. Of course they had left early for the New Year's holiday.

Today, January 2nd, I got a "Confirmation Statement" from my employer (postmarked December 29th), verifying my open enrollment selections, including the health insurance that I clearly didn't select. A month later than normal and just in time to not do anything about it. (That is, with their probable assumption being that I didn't have enough sense to keep a copy of the open enrollment selections I made on November 18th.) The amount that they are ripping off, by they way, is $300 a month -- $3,600 a year. With that kind of money I could actually pay for some bills -- maybe even pay a real (homeopathic) doctor if I had to.

So the question is: "What's the size of the kickback my company gets from United Health Care for "insuring" that I'm being fleeced for so-called "health insurance"? (Did I mention that my company is owned by Carl Icahn?)