FOUL PLAY
Insurance company mistreatment
When you're an independent businessperson, getting good health insurance is especially tough. An organization like the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) should help, right?
It turns out that the NASE functions as a front for MEGA Life and Health and related companies—all the subject of a multi-state investigation and now infamous around the country for shady sales practices, leaky-bucket coverage, and trails of unpaid bills leaving financially strapped customers high and dry. MEGA has faced fines from Delaware to Washington state.
Think MEGA Life is an outlier in the industry? William Gedwed, Chairman, President, and CEO of MEGA parent company HealthMarkets, sits on the Board of Directors of AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), the industry’s lobby arm. He must be watching out for the public good.
Read more in the "Foul Play" Archive.
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LATEST SCORECARD
Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the U.S. report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of U.S. doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients’ care, according to the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey.
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Families saw their premiums for job-based health insurance rise to an average of $13,375 annually in 2009, with workers paying an average share of $3,515 and employers paying $9,860.
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