President Obama may want Americans to have universal health care, but health insurers say they want to continue their practice of canceling the coverage for some sick individuals, called rescission, reports the L.A.Times . A congressional investigation into three insurers found that they canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people in a five-year period, allowing the companies to avoid paying $300 million in claims, the paper reported. At a committee hearing this week, executives from UnitedHealth, Assurant Health and Wellpoint said that they wouldn’t pledge to limiting the practice of dropping coverage to cases of policy holders who lied or commited fraud to get policies. But Wellpoint CEO Brian Sassi said that rescission was necessary to prevent such abuses. Obama has said he wants to eliminate insurers’ practice of denying coverage to those with pre-existing health conditions, a goal that earned him a large round of applause when

he addressed the American Medical Association on Monday. “No one can defend, and I certainly cannot defend, the practice of canceling coverage after the fact,” Rep. Michael C. Burgess, a member of the committee, told the LAT. “There is no acceptable minimum to denying coverage after the fact.” Another way that people with insurance are getting hurt — at least during the current economic downturn — is through state cuts to Medicaid, the government program for the poor and disabled. The WSJ reports that children, in particular, are suffering because fewer doctors are taking Medicaid patients as Medicaid payments are reduced. About 20% of 42 hospitals surveyed recently by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals reported cutting or considering cutting clinicial services because of the recession. Photo by greefus groinks via Flickr

Read more from the original source:
Insurers Not Committing to End Rescission