States have passed hundreds of laws to protect people from wrongful insurance denials. Yet from emergency services to fertility preservation, insurers still say no.
  • Drusas@kbin.social
    501·
    10 months ago

    On Wednesday, a ProPublica investigation traced how a Michigan company would not pay for an FDA-approved cancer medication for a patient, Forrest VanPatten, even though a state law requires insurers to cover cancer drugs. That expensive treatment offered VanPatten his only chance for survival. The father of two died at the age 50, still battling the insurer for access to the therapy. Regulators never intervened.

    Land of the free*.

    *As long as we can fleece you.

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
      291·
      10 months ago

      My mother-in-law’s sister survived cancer once. Years later, she started feeling pain and worried that the cancer had come back. Her insurance company repeatedly denied basic scans/tests to see if the cancer had returned.

      My wife’s cousins finally got sick of all this and paid out of their own pockets for the tests. She had cancer again. Only by this point, it had spread. It was in the base of her tongue and was blocking her throat. They had to remove her tongue, but that didn’t stop the cancer. She eventually passed away.

      Would she have survived if the insurance company approved the tests in the beginning? There’s no way to guarantee this, but she would definitely have had a better shot at survival.

      But at least the insurance company saved some money, right? Isn’t that the most important thing? 😡

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
    49·
    10 months ago

    As long as the cost of breaking a law is less than the cost of complying, American businesses will choose breaking the law every single time.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      181·
      10 months ago

      American governments often fail to realise that they literally hold all the cards. At any time they can dissolve or threaten to dissolve a company for flagrantly disregarding the law, and yet this rarely happens.

      • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
        15·
        10 months ago

        In fact the opposite is true. Since Citizen’s United allowed unlimited bribery political donations, companies hold all the cards. Unlimited funding and advertising can make or break most any candidate’s chances for election, especially in purple areas.

          • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            10 months ago

            Explain please, exactly who’s going to do the dissolving? The same government representatives who are controlled via donations by that corporation? Wishful thinking doesn’t make it so.