Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Life Insurance_The Bottom Line
Ill health has left your mother unable to care for herself.
She needs home care to get by.Thankfully she purchased
a long-term care insurance policy over a decade ago and
has been faithfully paying the premiums ever since. She
was determined her children should not suffer the
burden of paying for her care later in life.
But the payment from the insurance company never
arrives.You call the insurance company over and over
and send them document after document.They deny
the claim, citing reasons from“the claim is too late,” to
“you did not fill out the paperwork,” to“you filled out
the wrong paperwork.”The denials change each time,
often citing provisions in the policy that do not exist,
and often contradicting previous denials.Meanwhile,
the cost of the care has quickly depleted your mother’s
savings, and now the bills fall to you,the very prospect
she sought to avoid.
“[T]he bottom line is that insurance
companies make money when they
don’t pay claims…They’ll do
anything to avoid paying, because if
they wait long enough,they know
the policy holders will die.”
— Mary Beth Senkewicz, former senior
executive at the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
The case of 77-year-old Mary Rose Derks from
Montana attracted congressional attention after the New
York Times highlighted her plight at the hands of
insurance company Conseco.
13 Her family was forced to
sell their small business after Conseco denied the claim
one way or another for more than four years. Insurance
companies have long embraced delaying tactics to avoid
paying claims, but undoubtedly the most shameful use
of delay tactics has been by insurance companies
involved in long-term care insurance. According to Mary
Beth Senkewicz, a former senior executive at the
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
(NAIC), “the bottom line is that insurance companies
make money when they don’t pay claims…They’ll do
anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long
enough, they know the policyholders
She needs home care to get by.Thankfully she purchased
a long-term care insurance policy over a decade ago and
has been faithfully paying the premiums ever since. She
was determined her children should not suffer the
burden of paying for her care later in life.
But the payment from the insurance company never
arrives.You call the insurance company over and over
and send them document after document.They deny
the claim, citing reasons from“the claim is too late,” to
“you did not fill out the paperwork,” to“you filled out
the wrong paperwork.”The denials change each time,
often citing provisions in the policy that do not exist,
and often contradicting previous denials.Meanwhile,
the cost of the care has quickly depleted your mother’s
savings, and now the bills fall to you,the very prospect
she sought to avoid.
“[T]he bottom line is that insurance
companies make money when they
don’t pay claims…They’ll do
anything to avoid paying, because if
they wait long enough,they know
the policy holders will die.”
— Mary Beth Senkewicz, former senior
executive at the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
The case of 77-year-old Mary Rose Derks from
Montana attracted congressional attention after the New
York Times highlighted her plight at the hands of
insurance company Conseco.
13 Her family was forced to
sell their small business after Conseco denied the claim
one way or another for more than four years. Insurance
companies have long embraced delaying tactics to avoid
paying claims, but undoubtedly the most shameful use
of delay tactics has been by insurance companies
involved in long-term care insurance. According to Mary
Beth Senkewicz, a former senior executive at the
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
(NAIC), “the bottom line is that insurance companies
make money when they don’t pay claims…They’ll do
anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long
enough, they know the policyholders
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