Health Insurance - A Healthy Nightmare

The topic of public health insurance is a huge debate right now, and though I personally generally align myself with the political elements that don't believe that it's the government's job to keep us healthy, I do have enough experience with the current system to agree that something has got to be done to keep these morons at bay.

Due to the nature of my career, I have been paying for my own health insurance since 2005. For the most part I've been reasonably happy with the coverage, though I do have to laugh sarcastically each year when I get the notification that my rate is going up another $20 a month because "you got older!" Well, I'm sorry about that, the time machine is still in the blueprint stage.

In any case, though, I've had to change companies a few times due to relocation, so I'm pretty experienced with the procedure: apply for coverage with the new region's company, let them verify my previous coverage with my current company, cancel coverage with current company. Shouldn't be much of a hassle, right?

Shouldn't be, anyways.

This summer, after moving, I went to cancel my old account. After two failed attempts at calling into customer service (the voice recognition software wasn't accepting any voice commands and therefore put me on hold for 40+ minutes each time), I finally logged into my account online and sent an email to customer service. Five days later (!!!) I finally got a reply, informing me to send a letter to the address they provided, with my information, reason for cancellation, etc. At this point, it was only a few days before my intended date of cancellation, so I ended up with an extra bill I had no intention of paying a week or so later. I again called customer service, and was informed that it would take a week or two for the information to be entered into the database, so to just hold off on paying the bill and wait to receive a cancellation later. No cancellation later arrived, but neither did another bill, so I considered the matter closed.

Two months later, I receive a whopping bill for the previous three months (one of which I had legitimately paid), along with the notification that they would be sending the account to collections. Having already had two previous fun and completely unjustified experiences with collections agencies in the past - and worth at least three more future rants - I went directly to the Better Business Bureau to take care of the problem. (The BBB, by the by, gets this ranter's Platinum Seal of Approval for being an advocate for people like me and you.)

Lo and behold, two weeks later, I received a very nice letter from the BBB, informing me that the insurance company had canceled the account and was sorry for the inconvenience.

The moral of the story is, don't be bullied by companies attempting to swindle you out of your hard earned cash. Many people may think they have no choice, and others may rather pay an extra bill to avoid the hassle. But we have to stand our ground and keep these creeps from getting any more money than they deserve.