Woman Whose Health Insurance Was Cancelled by Blue Cross/WellPoint After She Got...

Woman Whose Health Insurance Was Cancelled by Blue Cross/WellPoint After She
Got Sick Urges Congress to Protect Innocent Patients

Congress Should Not Let Insurers Continue to Cheat Consumers in HealthCare
Reform

WASHINGTON, June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wittney Horton of Los Angeles,
whose own insurance was cancelled after she sought routine medical care,
appeared today before the House subcommittee on Government Oversight and
Investigations to urge lawmakers to stop insurance companies from canceling or
downgrading insurance coverage when patients get sick.

Horton is part of a class action lawsuit against Blue Cross of California, a
subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health insurer. Horton
represents 6,000 similar victims of Blue Cross "rescissions" - retroactive
cancellations of insurance policies after a patient gets sick with an
expensive-to-treat illness.

In her testimony to the committee today, Wittney Horton said: "Americans
desperately need health care reform. As my experience shows, owning an
insurance policy does not necessarily equal access to health care. If
insurance companies are not prevented from canceling or restricting coverage
after patients get sick, insurance policies are not worth the paper they are
printed on. Insurance companies are making record profits by collecting
premiums in exchange for the promises they make to be there when people need
them. Make them keep that promise."

Download Ms. Horton's complete testimony here:
http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org/resources/HortonTestimony.pdf

When Horton applied for coverage with Blue Cross, she filled out the long and
confusing application to the best of her ability. She gave Blue Cross
permission to review her medical records. Blue Cross accepted her application
and sold her coverage. After Horton sought routine medical care, Blue Cross
scoured Horton's medical record and retroactively cancelled her coverage.
Blue Cross said it would have never sold her a policy if the company had known
Horton had "polycystic ovaries," a condition not disclosed on her application.
The rescission letter was the first time Horton had ever heard about this
condition. Horton's doctor had suspected she had the condition, noted it in
Horton's medical file, but never told Horton about it.

In a letter to chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) last year when the subcommittee
began its rescission investigation, Consumer Watchdog urged lawmakers to bar
such rescissions unless an insurance company could prove that the patient
"intentionally misrepresented" her health condition as required under federal
law. Under such an approach, Blue Cross could not cancel Horton's policy
since she was not aware of the condition and therefore could not have lied
about it on her application. Download Consumer Watchdog's letter to Waxman
here: http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org/resources/WaxmanRescissionLetter.pdf

The House subcommittee appears to be focused on barring rescission of innocent
patients like Wittney Horton regardless of whether comprehensive national
reform is enacted this year. The centerpiece of both the House and Senate
reform proposals would require every American to show proof of owning an
insurance policy or face tax penalties.

"If all Americans will have to prove they own insurance policies, the
government must also make insurance companies stick to their promises. That
means not letting insurers cancel coverage or dump sick patients into low
benefit policies that effectively block access to the care patients need,"
said William Shernoff of the law firm Shernoff, Bidart, Darras and Echeverria
representing Ms. Horton.

Presumably, if Congressional reform plans are enacted, insurance companies
could not leave patients completely uninsured after a major illness, because
the proposals guarantee availability of coverage regardless of health
condition. However, nothing in these proposals would bar a health insurer or
HMO from transferring a patient who gets sick into low-benefit policies.
Such policies will certainly have skimpier benefits, high deductibles, and
high co-pays. For a patient like Ms. Horton, such a degraded policy is almost
as effective in blocking access to care as canceling coverage.

"The health insurance industry is promising to provide insurance policies
regardless of our health conditions. This is another example of a fake
concession by the health insurance industry: the fine print says that though
you might have an insurance policy, you're not covered," said Carmen Balber,
director of Consumer Watchdog's Washington D.C. office.

For More Information:

** Read Consumer Watchdog's analysis of health insurer and drug company
contributions to the Blue Dog Coalition.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27829

** Read Consumer Watchdog's letter to Congressional leaders listing 10 patient
abuses perpetrated by HMOs and health insurers that are currently not
addressed by the House and Senate reform proposals.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27748

** Read Consumer Watchdog's letter calling on Senator Baucus and members of
the U.S. Finance Committee to publicly answer ten questions about how
requiring all Americans to show proof of insurance or face tax penalties will
provide affordable health care.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27289&topicId=9871

** Read Consumer Watchdog's letter to President Obama and Sens. Kennedy and
Baucus warning them not to agree to the health insurers' plan to gut state
health care laws.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27228

** Read Consumer Watchdog's letter to U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) urging
that he continue to protect patients consistent with the principles he has
articulated during his 40 year career.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=26398

** Read Consumer Watchdog's analysis of health insurer and drug company
contributions to members of Congress.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=25468

** Read about a recent national poll that found that 65% of voters support
giving every American of any age the option of joining Medicare; 60% are
willing to pay more in payroll deductions for this option.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=24826

** Read about a national poll that found, by contrast, that only 16% of U.S.
voters support, and 53% oppose, the insurance industries' plan of requiring
every American to provide proof of private health insurance or face tax
penalties or other fines.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=24110

Consumer Watchdog is a non-partisan consumer advocacy organization with
offices in Washington D.C. and Santa Monica, California. Visit us on the web
at http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

Carmen Balber, +1-202-629-3043 or +1-310-403-0284 (cell); Jerry Flanagan,
+1-310-889-4912, both of Consumer Watchdog