THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Study: Insured Cancer Patients Do Better: In the aftermath of a $9.4 million award an arbitration judge gave to a CA woman whose insurance coverage was dropped by Health Net Inc. while she was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, the health-insurance industry is concerned about the bad publicity it is getting over retroactive policy cancellations, reports The Wall Street Journal:
Such cases have cast an unflattering light on insurers' practices of investigating individuals' medical histories after they get sick. The insurers say they have the right to rescind policies when policyholders don't disclose pre-existing medical conditions that would have disqualified them from coverage, or when they misrepresent information on their policy application. …
America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, is pushing a proposal with state regulators that would give consumers the right to appeal such policy cancellations, known as rescissions, to an external panel, whose decisions would be binding. Some insurance companies, eager for even quicker action, are preparing to roll out their own independent review programs.
The efforts, which are getting a largely positive reception from consumer groups, are emerging amid public outrage in several states against insurers that have voided policies after the beneficiaries started racking up large claims for cancer or other serious illnesses.
† Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II: A survey of 1,200 students finds that about half of 17-year-olds “lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of ‘a complete education,’” reports USA Today. For instance, 43 percent knew the dates the Civil War started and ended; 51 percent were aware that WI Sen. Joseph McCarthy was trying to root out communist infiltration in the military and other government institutions; and 52 percent knew the premise behind the allegorical novel 1984. American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study, tells the paper, that “it matters a lot” that kids have “common historical touchstones” so that “at some level, we feel like members of a common culture.”
† The Not-So Silent Scream: John Solomon, the new managing editor of the Washington Times, is already making his mark: He is doing away with “scare quotes.” Washington City Paper reports that henceforth, “radical and immoral” terms like gay marriage will not be presented as gay “marriage.” Since you can’t get more radical or immoral than the attempted annihilation of an entire race or ethnic group, The Stiletto takes it that Turkish propagandist-cum-columnist Tulin Daloglu will not be able to refer to the Armenian "genocide" in her columns. If so, this is a positive development in journalistic integrity at the Moonie-owned paper.
† Can Somebody Please Get Chris Matthews A Filter?: A wag sent MediaBistro blog FishbowlDC a visual representation of that feeling in the “Hardball” anchor’s leg when he lays eyes on Barack Obama.
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