Comment by Abishek_Muthian | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Abishek_Muthian | Hacker News Reader

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Abishek_Muthian

I'm glad there's a way for someone with Chronic illness to get Medicaid in U.S., Thanks for sharing. I wish you and your child the strength to manage the health issues.

I suffer from chronic illness(bone related, had a successful spine surgery couple of years back), Now insurers in India are straight away denying me any health policy and not just any insurers they're top private insurers in tie-up with leading international insurance companies incl. U.S.(There's 100% FDI for insurance industry).

My interactions with the insurers gives me PTSD[1], I understand the business risk for an insurance company in insuring a sick person, So I'm not asking for a charity or even empathy all I'm expecting is for them to take decisions using medical science and common sense.

Say I have bone diseases, I have proven with medical tests(conducted by the insurer) that my heart and other body functions are normal. Now a blanket denial of policy prevents me from getting proper treatment for diseases I don't have; Since my bones aren't normal should I be not covered for COVID too?

The story is not unique to me, I've heard much worse horror stories from the disabled community.

What's worse is blanket denial of health insurance to disabled are against Govt. regulations and supreme court orders; Yet all my complaints went to deaf years. Now I'm left with one option, I'm planning to write to the U.S. Government and other governments about how their companies are acting against the disabled in India.

[1] https://abishekmuthian.com/insurers-are-putting-the-lives-of...

writing to government(s) isn't going to do much, I believe.

Denial of policy renewal - if thats what you are saying is happening - is indeed illegal. Instead of wasting time, you should file a writ petition in your jurisdictional High Court, and make sure your lawyer does not let the matter go on for "date after date". If you can't afford a lawyer, this is something you can try to file on your own - High courts tend to take dim views of such behaviour by companies, and don't stand too much on ceremony. There are people called "law clerks" that operate on the High court campuses. They are the ones who do all the paper work for all lawyers (excluding actually drafting) - and they tend to be underpaid. Find one of them who is willing to help you unofficially for a small fee - this will help you take care of the basics (you need this form, so much fee stamps, this signature here, etc etc - this is needed to just get the matter before a judge). Once it goes in front of a judge, plead your case in normal speech, respectfully, without theatrics, and state the remedy you are seeking.

I appreciate the comment, I'm sure that I will get a policy if I approach the courts but it will not do anything for others who cannot move to courts.

There have been plenty of precedence which lead to supreme court passing an order urging the Govt. to ensure disabled get health insurance. And govt. made changes to Insurance regulations which states that the insurer should cover pre-existing diseases after maximum of 4 years and blacklisted certain chronic diseases(Mine isn't blacklisted) from being covered; Note: Just the diseases are not covered, Policy is not denied.

So all these insurance companies are advertising 2-4 years to cover existing diseases as per the regulation. I went through lot of effort to apply to all leading insurers and have documented(link in prev. comment) how they ignore the insurance regulation to deny policy, Followed by how my complaints to the insurance regulators on each of these insurers did absolutely nothing.

Journalists from leading media org. approached me to hear the story after I published the blog but they didn't publish any story on how the insurance industry is treating the disabled as they're the leading advertisers especially during COVID. Few independent media did publish my story along with those of others facing similar situation.

I'm of opinion that getting these insurers reprimanded in their home countries for their unethical, immoral and illegal behavior might have great positive effect for the disabled around the world.

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