I spent a little time last year on the issue of Mega Life and Health. There’s only one term for this company, and what’s really frightening is that it’s a major player in AHIP. If AHIP is ever going to get itself out of the self-serving position it’s in and transition to being an organization of responsible private health plans that can have a reasonable conversation about the positive role health plans can play , the plans who could live in a future of community rating need to leave, or jettison the scumbags like Mega.
What’s the activity I’m so upset about?
Mega Life and Health sells health insurance door to door to poor to middle and low income working people. They claim that they are selling a product which their customers understand. But the point their customers clearly do not understand is that the insurance has severe limits on what it pays, especially what it pays per day in cases of expensive care. So if a policyholder gets sick and needs hospital care, Mega only pays out a fraction of what the hospital charges, leaving the poor sucker patient on the hook for the rest. Last year the California Supreme Court ruled that this con, like all the best cons, is legal. And this type of policy continues to be sold (more or less legally) in most states.
