Sovereign Health Releases Part 6 of The War on Behavioral Health Care: Insurance Companies’ “Bad Faith” Tactics Kill

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- The unethical tactics health insurance companies use to get rich by denying claims is highlighted in Insurance Companies Kill People with "Bad Faith" Tactics, a new installment of the ground-breaking series The War on Behavioral Health Care. The new segment launched today; it explores discrimination in connection with addiction and mental illness, the stigma perpetuated by the media, profits gained at the price of human suffering and systemic corruption in the insurance industry.

Read Laurie St. Clair's story in this article. Laurie was raising five of her young grandchildren when she passed away at the age of 53. Four months earlier, Laurie's doctor told her she needed a liver transplant. Insurers Health Net and HealthCare LA spent months negotiating a contract to determine who would pay; there was no doctor in network for her transplant. The back-and-forth dragged on for four months. The negotiations dragged on so long that Laurie never got the care she needed, when she needed it. Laurie died. Her life was lost, and money was saved.

Sadly, delaying treatment until death is just one of many "bad faith" practices health insurance companies used to avoid having to pay for expensive treatments, even if they are legally obligated to do so. Insurers are adept at denying, delaying, confusing and refusing-all at the patient's expense.

The amount most people living in the United States pay for health care keeps rising. The median U.S. household income 2016 was $57,617. A 2016 study showed many people paid more than 10 percent of their income on premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket payments. People with serious illnesses paid up to 25 percent on health care costs.

Insurance companies count on the fact that many people give up fighting for the services they have paid to receive, which is why they get rich while people die. The only way to win the insurance battle is to hold them accountable for their obligations, and their actions to duck those obligations. Losing the insurance battle means losing the war on behavioral health care. The future of our nation depends on every American understanding what this war means, and standing up for our own lives and the lives of our children before it's too late.

Last week's installment, " The War on Behavioral Health Care Part 5. Not in My Backyard," explored the underlying factors that drive communities' NIMBYism (not in my backyard-ism) to recovery facilities, despite the need for care as the opioid crisis sweeps the country. The article detailed the aggressive and shocking behavior of neighbors who repeatedly launched violent assaults on a recovery home being prepared to receive patients.

Keywords for this news article include: Legal Issues, Health Insurance, Sovereign Health.

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