When I left the corporate world and became self-employed, getting health insurance was a long and tedious process ("People left holding bag when policies revoked," Cover story, News, Monday).
In addition to the lengthy questionnaires, I waited about three months while the insurer processed the forms and obtained my family's medical records. I guess my insurer was doing the process of verification before it wrote the policy.
It would appear that the insurers rescinding policies have found a nice shortcut: Write the policy and skip the verification process -- at least until there is a claim.
Now, you could blame the companies or people's mistakes on the forms, but doing so doesn't fix the problem. The simple solution is to eliminate the right to rescind policies. Let insurers verify a person's application before they sell that person insurance. It is simply ridiculous to allow businesses to sell something and then back out of the transaction because they weren't careful enough when they sold it.
There has always been the adage "buyer beware." It seems only fair that "seller beware" should apply to insurers. No one is forcing the insurance companies to sell the policies, but they should honor them when they do.
Tom Hogner
(c)
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