Jurors in Colorado ruled that Time Insurance d/b/a Assurant Health must pay $37 million to a former preschool teacher for cancelling her health insurance after she was seriously injured in a car accident. Time/Assurant refused to pay approximately $185,000 in medical bills from the accident and cancelled the woman’s policy. The insurance company’s “excuse” was that she failed to disclose a previous emergency room visit for shortness of breath. Jurors obviously didn’t buy it.
After the debilitating accident, the Colorado woman was left unable to return to work and now supports her four children on Social Security disability payments.
This is just one example of the arrogance of insurers nationwide who want to cherry pick who they cover and arbitrarily look for excuses to cancel coverage in the middle of serious illnesses or injuries- just at the time you need your coverage the most! Kudos to the Colorado jurors for making the insurers pay a heavy price for their ill-advised actions. If more jurors will make similar gutsy rulings, insurance companies will be forced to deal with all of us in the fair manner we all deserve and expect.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
