Confession: I am not one of those people who believes the answer to every question is “let the free market decide.” I don’t believe that the market does what’s in the best interests of the people, either short or long term. See: the dominance of sport utility vehicles in the United States, effects on the environment, contribution to collapse of General Motors, etc.
Nor do I believe that insurance companies in America have the best interests of consumers at heart. Indeed, in such a hyper-capitalist nation, the corporations we hand our money over to often care zero about us, and one hundred about their bottom lines.
Proof positive comes from Reuters:
…Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.
So, targeting HIV positive consumers in order to strip them of their insurance…and yet some lawmakers think it’s ok to let these companies continue these practices and operate this way, essentially unchecked?
Not on my watch. Feel the same? Take action and make sure this kind of travesty stops.
Still think insrance companes have your best interests at heart?