Cigna Corporation, an ERISA health insurer, killed Nataline Sarkisyan in December 2007, denying a liver transplant on the pretext it was “experimental” (which is insurance company code for “expensive”; after all paying for the transplant would reduce its profits). Nataline’s parents sued Cigna for killing their daughter. Nataline’s mom, Hilda, also appeared at Cigna’s Phildelphia [..]
As we have seen there are judges who are becoming fed up with ERISA and its malignant effects on the behavior of insurance companies and the ability of insureds to enforce the promises made in insurance policies. These judges, of course, do not make up the entirety of the federal judiciary. There are other judges [..]
I was shown a post on another blog the other day ranting about how horrible ERISA attorneys are because they charge for their services when their clients really really need their insurance benefits to survive. This other blog post was inaccurate, ignorant, unduly vituperative, and I did not like it. So I am not gonna [..]
The Honorable Lawrence K. Karlton is Senior District Judge for the Eastern District of California, which is based in Sacramento. Judge Karlton is a 1979 Carter appointee to the federal bench, and before that he was a Superior Court judge in Sacramento County. Earlier this year, on August 13, Judge Karlton issued a decision in [..]
One of the major points advanced in favor of health insurance reform is that insurance companies abuse the privilege of refusing to cover you if they decide you have a pre-existing condition, or pulling the plug on coverage you already have if they decide you had one you didn’t tell them about when you applied [..]
We are exploring the “discretion” scam which infects ERISA law, and how it unduly stacks the deck in favor of insurance companies when you take them to court. I thought an illustration of how big a difference it makes might be useful here, so join me in a review of two recent cases from United [..]
Earlier we started a discussion about the “abuse of discretion” scam. In a nutshell, the so-called “standard of review” a court employs in evaluating an insurance company’s decision to deny your claim is very often, in and of itself, outcome-determinative. Given that a great many insurance company denials are, shall we say, questionable, if the [..]
We’ve heard so far from me, a frustrated lawyer who’s seen too many clients cheated by insurers and ERISA, and from several frustrated federal judges who’ve grown weary of having to apply this most unjust law. Today academia enters the fray. Professor Tony Sebok of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law blogs today at [..]
From the president’s speech last night: “More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.” “As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance [..]
As we have seen one of the many problems with ERISA is that we pretend insurance companies are something other than what they really are. What they are is private corporations seeking to maximize shareholder value by turning a profit. Nothing wrong with that, at all. But along with that perfectly legitimate status usually goes [..]
