Theft

(Editor’s Note: What follows is nothing uncommon when it comes to what we go through here in the U.S. with our health insurance providers. Enjoy and good luck! The recount is courtesy of Gimleteye from the Eye on Miami blog.)

I purchase my own family insurance. Both my wife and I are healthy, with standard, middle-aged wear and tear. We exercise regularly. Eat simply. You get the point. We have 60,000 miles on the vehicle, in a manner of speaking.

I went online to fill out the application for a lower deductible from my current provider, AETNA. I was quoted, online, $1,100 per month. The online application required me to provide detailed healthy history and credit card information.

A year ago, when I increased my deductible because of the regular cost increases, no review was required. But when I went to shop lowering my deductible, AETNA required a FULL review as though mine were a new application and as if they didn’t already have access to my full health history.

After my wife and I spent two hours on the phone and the company, through a third party vendor ("Hello, I am here to ask you questions about your health history. I am a certified medical doctor."), went through our health history with a fine-toothed comb, the initial deductible re-materialized 50 percent higher from the online quote: from $1,100 to $1,800 per month.

My current AETNA policy (with the $10,000 deductible) is a quarter, of that cost, so when the AETNA representative called to tell me I had been "accepted", I declined.

I want to repeat this: I declined. I also made clear that I wanted to keep my existing policy. "Oh, nothing will happen to your existing policy," the AETNA representative politely told me. But I didn’t believe her.

To make sure I wouldn’t lose my existing policy, after the call was over, I immediately called AETNA billing, to be sure the "new" policy wasn’t automatically put into effect and to emphasize, for a second time, that I intended to keep the policy with its high deductible: $10,000 per individual and $20,000 per family.

In other words, I declined the new coverage to two AETNA representatives on separate phone calls. I’m safe, right?

Two days later, I received an email that AETNA charged my credit card $1,800 for the new policy. It was on a Saturday.

I called the AETNA help desk, but it was closed. "Business hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. etc. etc." So I sent AETNA customer service an email immediately, complaining.

So let’s review this. The AETNA billing department was closed on Saturday, and yet the AETNA computer had billed me $1,800.

A day later, on Sunday, I received a reply that my credit card would be credited in 5-7 business days. It still hasn’t been credited.

In my opinion, what my health care provider did constitutes theft. Theft, as clearly as if someone stole my wallet. A little more sophisticated, but theft nonetheless.

As for what my $10,000 deductible gets us? You tell me, and I’d especially like to hear from the Tea Party crazies who believe that health care reform is a communist conspiracy.