Bad News for People Who Seem to Prefer Health Care Doled Out by Insurance Companies’ Accountants Rather Than the Government (1) Mr. Houston Tracy, who is insured, has a major medical disorder, but BlueCross BlueShield of Texas said it will not cover it because it was a “pre-existing condition.” This is interesting because Houston is now about two weeks old, and it’s “pre-existing” only in the sense that it was spotted pre-natally, in the womb. Might the government be more sympathetic to Houston than an insurance company would? Paula Ortel wouldn’t think so. (2) Ortel, on Medicare, has a brain tumor that was miraculously wiped out (9 years’ remission!) by an experimental kind of interferon that’s authorized for multiple sclerosis. Medicare had been paying $100,000 a year for her drug. But then Ortel moved from one county in Wisconsin to another, which triggered an automatic review of her records–and Medicare’s realization that her drug was not authorized for brain cancer. The interferon was cut off; the tumor immediately returned; and she now knows she’s doomed. KHOU-TV (Houston) /// Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartFailureNews/newborns-family-learns-pre-existing-conditions-apply-birth/story?id=10218514

Tags: BCBS, health care, insurance denials, Medicare, pre existing condition