Health insurers under the gun

Re “Hope for patients who lost policies,” April 18

I have been in the individual and group health insurance business since 1982. Insurers used to require that doctors fill out an “attending physician’s statement” on each individual requesting coverage. This gave the insurer the opportunity to underwrite before issuing a policy. This became too cumbersome, and subsequently extensive health questions were asked on applications; that became an invasion of privacy and prompted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Insurers then adopted short health questionnaires but were forced to underwrite policies after issuance, at claim time for fraudulent applications or omissions.

No one can run a business successfully without assessing risk. I don’t know the answer, but I feel that insurers have tried to comply with applicants’ concerns at almost all junctures.

Gale Gousha

Upland

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This article didn’t mention the sickest patient of all -- the healthcare system. It all comes down to dollars and sense -- too many of our healthcare dollars are spent on insurance administration. Removing insurers from the equation would allow coverage for millions of uninsured consumers.

Government agencies are finally stepping in to stop insurers from rescinding patients’ coverage after they make a claim. But when will Americans demand a single-payer healthcare program? Enacting a bill sponsored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) would be a good start.

Lynda A. Hernandez

Huntington Beach

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Amazing! Cindy Ehnes, director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, says that she has been working on the egregious practice of healthcare firms’ rescissions. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown also claims to have been investigating the issue for quite a while. Suddenly, government officials are tripping over each other in a classic “Me, too, and have been for a long time” response. To quote Bob Dylan, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Jack Rosenberg

Redondo Beach

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Re “Insurer sued over rescissions,” April 17

Although I think Anthem Blue Cross should feel the full power of the proper regulatory agencies for the way it has handled some of its rescissions, I wonder exactly what L.A. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo is planning on running for? It looks as though he is trying to clean up his reputation. These rescission cases should be handled by the state and not by each city.

Gene Rowe

Encino

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I hope all three major presidential candidates will sniff out the importance of the accusations Delgadillo is making with regard to Anthem Blue Cross. No one in the national debate on healthcare is addressing the most fundamental question about healthcare, one that the Blue Cross suit obliquely raises: Exactly what level of service, at what cost, constitutes health coverage? Politicians talk about people having coverage and making sure people are insured as if having a written policy with an insurer’s name on it has anything to do with access to affordable healthcare.

Anyone paying $7,000 to $14,000 a year for a family or individual policy, with a $2,500 deductible per person, knows that this kind of so-called coverage means you’d better not get sick. That’s not health coverage. Meanwhile, our candidates and both houses of Congress are avoiding the simple truth underlying the city attorney’s action -- that as long as we leave insurance companies to decide what constitutes “health insurance,” the problem will continue to worsen.

Delgadillo is on the right track. I just wish Washington were.

John Morell

Ojai