Legislation Against Insurers
February 15, 2008
There is new legislation being introduced in California by a lawmaker that cracks down on insurers. The legislation needs insurers to get state permission before canceling a members coverage. The bill was introduced by Hector De La Torre from Los Angeles County.
This bill comes after news about certain letters Blue Cross of California has been sending to doctors. The letters ask doctors to report pre-existing conditions and discrepancies that can be used as grounds to cancel the policies of new members.
This practice was defended by Blue Cross initially and then they turned around and said that the sending of letters to physicians would stop. According to Blue Cross the letter was being sent for years but was no longer necessary.
According to De La Torre, insured Californians would be protected against the insurance companies unfair practices through this new bill. He said this recent letter showed the level of fall in ethics of insurance companies.
This policy of Blue Cross is called rescission and has been widely criticised by people. It involves retroactively canceling coverage after the filing of medical claims by individual policyholders. Issues involved here are the jeopardizing of doctor patient relationships as well as privacy rights of patients.
