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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMan In Need Of Bone Marrow Transplant Finds His Health Coverage Terminated Over $0.26
Source: Consumerist
It appears that the question Can anyone spare a quarter? is not one you need to be worried about when your life is on the line. But one couple found out exactly how dire of a situation a little more than a quarter could get them into after the husbands health coverage was terminated months before he was scheduled for a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia. The reason? A $0.26 shortfall on a monthly COBRA premium.
Karin Price Mueller of the New Jersey Star-Ledger spoke to the mans wife, who inadvertently wrote a check for $518.00 instead of $518.26 when sending payment to Paychex, the company handling COBRA for her husbands previous employer.
It was all a mistake, says the wife, one that almost cost her husband his life. Paychex cashed the check at first, and the man kept on receiving treatment. Then the hospital told him he didnt have insurance coverage.
The wife contacted Paychex and says she was told for the first time that the payment had been off by $0.26. There was no option to bring the payment up-to-date either, she said. The couple had even paid the premium (besides that quarter) well before it was due. Paychex reportedly told her that her husbands previous employer had instructed it not to accept any more payments.
Read more: http://consumerist.com/2013/08/12/man-in-need-of-bone-marrow-transplant-finds-his-health-coverage-terminated-over-0-26/
Original story: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/08/bamboozled_life-saving_transpl.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)relationship with our Dr. and Hospitals.
It is bullshit that insurance companies are even allowed to make medical. decisions.
They just need to pay up and shut up
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)You're out and there's no way to get it back...the law needs to be changed/amended.
dembotoz
(16,739 posts)PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)But, I like your idea.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)SoutherDem
(2,307 posts)But they aren't in Obamacare they are in Private Insurance Companies.
wandy
(3,539 posts)Hay look! Somebody mis-wrote a check for 26 cents. Whoopy we can cancel the policy.
More Profit!
Parrish the thought. If Obama care works that may lead to single payer. Less profit!
Or worse universal health-care. How ever will I afford my new Bentley.
So sad that so many that someday need a helping hand have been fooled into believing the BS.
mainer
(12,013 posts)here: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/08/bamboozled_life-saving_transpl.html#incart_m-rpt-1
People are saying that if you can't afford the care, too bad, just die already.
And they're blaming Obamacare for everything.
a2liberal
(1,524 posts)mbperrin
(7,672 posts)expects payment (gasp) for a medical treatment!
We need universal single payer, and we need to get rid of the insurance companies altogether.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)For those who don't want to read the linked articles: The man who needed the transplant got a lawyer, who filed a motion. The lawyer argued that the patient had to be notified of the shortfall in the premium payment, and that coverage couldn't be terminated over a de minimis (negligibly small) amount anyway. Paychex, the company handling the insurance claim, backed down. The life-saving transplant will go ahead next week.
We draw two lessons here. The first is the obvious one that these corporate profiteers are scum. The second, not mentioned by other posters in this thread, is that plaintiffs' lawyers are a crucial line of defense for individuals who are victimized by corporate depredations.
And I'm not saying that just because I'm a plaintiffs' lawyer.
Props to my comrade-in-arms, Jeffrey Resnick, Esq., of Sherman, Silverstein, Kohl, Rose & Podolsky in Moorestown, New Jersey.