I would venture to guess there is no family who has not been touched (ripped off) by their insurance carrier. You don’t have to go far to find documented cases.

Take for example, the eleven year-old whose HMO delayed giving her important medical tests for her frequent headaches, letting a tumor grow unchecked for four years. According to the youngsters parents, the HMO had an incentive program in place to pay bonuses to physicians who avoided “excessive” care. The list of other cases of abuse by HMO’s goes on-and-on.

Your policy denies claims, delays payment, or only pays part of the charge. This is an all-too-frequent experience: “Eventually they covered a part of the bill, but it may take a year or more to collect it. Meanwhile, we paid the whole thing out-of-pocket” is an often-heard refrain.

Does your policy exclude entire organ systems from coverage, like reproductive, respiratory, or digestive? As one person on the Working From Home Forum said, “When I got my policy, it had riders attached which exempted any part of my body a doctor had ever looked at with more than a passing glance. Another rider exempted any problem of any kind having to do with a kidney or anything attached to it! But I had naturally passed a kidney stone about five years ago. I had no surgery or complications, but spent two days in the hospital.”

Have you or members of your group insurance made many claims? If so, rates are apt to be increased dramatically. After paying into an employer provided policy with Central Reserve Life for 5 years, I had a situation where I needed medical attention that only cost CRL $1,925 after my deductible and co-payments. They paid the initial claim but responded by increasing my deductible by 400%. In a policy that netted CRL probably $12,000, their response was to punish me when I used the policy for what it was designed for. Terms like “rip-off, conspiracy, and fraud, come to mind to describe this insurance company.

Don’t overlook the details! Willis Caroon provided the policy for Jennifer and her husband. When she delivered her first child, the proud parents excitedly took the baby home and contacted Willis Caroon with their claim. But, because they did not file the claim within 48 hours, the claim was denied and this new family was forced to pay the entire $5,000 medical bill. Technically, Willis Caroon could legally deny this claim because buried in the details of their coverage was the requirement to file a claim within 48 hours. It may be legal, but it’s not right!

The Insurance Industry Future
We will surely eventually reach the point where the Insurance industry simply collapses leaving millions of Americans without coverage or their life savings.

It has been a profitable confidence game for many years: create a crisis or scare … convince people to pay for protection … hike the prices of that protection … and abandon the policyholder when the money runs dry. Perhaps, it has already begun.

Following the inability of General American Life Insurance Co. to repay as much as $6.8 billion in customer deposits, on Aug. 10, 1999, St. Louis-based General American was put under state regulator’s supervision. Eventually Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. agreed to buy General American Life Insurance Co. for $1.2 billion in cash, resolving the Missouri insurer’s inability to repay it’s deposits. New York-based Met Life plans a “stabilization program” to deal with the deposits, known as funding agreements. What do you suppose that means? Rate hikes for everyone perhaps?

On Sept. 16, 2008, Americas largest insurance company, American International Group (AIG), suffered a liquidity crisis following the downgrade of its credit rating. The Federal Reserve loaned $85 billion to AIG at AIG’s request, to prevent the company’s collapse in exchange for warrants for a 79.9% equity stake and the right to suspend dividends to previously issued common and preferred stock.