In May 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year U.S. knew he had contracted AIDS. The news was devastating, but Mitchell believed he had at least one thing going for him: he had contracted health insurance in his first year in college. However, Fortis, the insurer that the policy was reversed the same after knowing the diagnosis of the young.
Mitchell, who doctors said would not live without treatment for over four years, he thought the cancellation was due to an error that the company would address. But Fortis, now known as Assurant Health, ignored the requests of the young. Mitchell decided to put the matter in the hands of justice and in 2004 a South Carolina judge him right and ordered the insurer to pay $ 15 million (11 million) for canceling the policy wrong. In 2009, the Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld the verdict but reduced the amount to $ 10 million (7,400,000).
With the verdict, Jerome Mitchell scored a victory not only for him, also helped demonstrate that the malpractices of Fortis could have implications for health insurers. During the trial it was shown that Fortis had a policy to the insured with HIV. He had a program to investigate whether people diagnosed with AIDS were committing fraud and the company was looking for any excuse to revoke the policy.
One of the researchers who performed in the case of Mitchell explained that the reason for focusing attention on these people is the high cost of treatment needed to combat the disease. “We’re talking about a lifelong treatment, a lifetime of care … a lot.”
No more evidence emerged of similar cases in other insurers, but this summer, an investigation by the Energy and Commerce committee of Congress found thousands of seriously ill policyholders whose coverage was canceled by some of the country’s largest insurers without any legal basis. The investigation yielded the finding that three companies had saved at least $ 300 million over five years for these terminations. One of these three companies is precisely Assurant, formerly Fortis.
Insurers have a major occupation in these practices for termination by a research system to its policyholders after having been diagnosed treatments for life. But the regulators who have reviewed the actions of Assurant and other insurance companies have said there is precedent for distinguishing people with AIDS.
The case of Mitchell has known while the U.S. president, Barack Obama, who is engaged in recovering his health reform plan, has stepped up his criticism of insurers. The U.S. Congress will vote tomorrow the reform proposed by Obama, who has said it is essential to address these unpopular and controversial practice of insurers.
