The Nunez health reform measure made it out of an Assembly Committee today, but I'm more interested in this other bill that Randy Bayne discusses:
HEALTH PLANS WOULD BE BANNED FROM RESCINDING POLICIES WHEN CONSUMERS USE COVERAGE
In a victory for consumers Tuesday, the Health Committee also passed AB1324 (De La Torre), which re-states and re-emphasizes California's law prohibiting health insurers for canceling coverage consumers if they turn out to be sick.
The bill comes about after several high profile cases in which several insurers such as Blue Cross of California rescinded coverage - retroactively - from policyholders after expensive claims were made. Consumers were left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills after the insurer refused to pay the bills incurred during the time patients believed they were insured. Blue Cross alleges that the patients knowingly lied about their health status on their applications for coverage, triggering the cancellation.
