Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Kick ‘en Again, Post-Underwrite Him, Pt.1 – Where’s peace of mind?

Nick DiCello of the Injury Board of Cleveland, has created a well-written article, posted on the cleveland.injuryboard.com web site. It concerns the plight of the victims who are badly injured and then are stricken with the injury-on-injury of being post-underwritten and losing desperately needed health insurance just when they need it most. He speaks of the most-commonly accepted expectation of what health insurance is for. First, it’s intended to provide the peace of mind that an “unfortunate event will not bankrupt you.” The expectation that buying that health insurance is really buying “the carrier's promise to pay insurance claims,” when needed. Of course, we all hope we’ll never have to file a claim, but what we do expect is the “peace of mind that we and our loved ones will be ‘covered’ if and when we need coverage.” All these thoughts should be considered more than just wishful thinking. They should be considered expected result of buying the insurance in the first place.

The shattering of that peace of mind, however, is when it is put to the test and results in the shock of being post-underwritten. Many of us trusting individuals who believe in making ‘good-faith’ agreements, aren’t even aware of what ‘post-claim underwriting’ is. So, for some of us ‘would-be victims’ it might be a good thing to be awares. ‘Post-claim underwriting’ takes place when some health insurance companies ‘wait until all the cards are down’ before placing their bet. The other players don’t get to do this. Some health insurance company will accept applications, presenting the impression to the applicant of what they can expect from the plan they are buying. The applicants submit their health insurance applications in good faith believing what they are told at ‘face-value’.

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