May 25, 2007 8:26 AM

Spider Bite? No Insurance For You

What happens when health insurance companies deny individual coverage to people not only with serious disease, but with minor health conditions? "Pacificare rejected me because I’m an expectant father. Blue Shield rejected me because I got a spider bite. And then this one rejected me because of asthma," Svonkin said. […] "Insurers are getting double […]

What happens when health insurance companies deny individual coverage to people not only with serious disease, but with minor health conditions?

"Pacificare rejected me because I'm an expectant father. Blue Shield rejected me because I got a spider bite. And then this one rejected me because of asthma," Svonkin said. [...]
"Insurers are getting double the profit that they make in the group market. Why is it so lucrative? Because they exclude anybody and everybody who has even a remote sense of risk associated with their health care," says Dr. Bryan Liang, who has studied the insurance industry for more than a decade.

The "Uninsurables" [CBS News]

Image: TheeErin

Brandon is a Wired Science reporter and freelance journalist. Based in Brooklyn, New York and Bangor, Maine, he's fascinated with science, culture, history and nature. ... Read More

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