Health Insurers Reject 15% of Applications Due to Prior Medical History

OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire Strategic Health Care News From 2007 to 2009, one out of every seven people who applied for an individual health plan policy were rejected due to pre-existing medical conditions. A review of application rejections issued by Aetna Inc., Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., and WellPoint Inc. found that together, they denied coverage to more than 651,000 people over the three-year period. Collectively the companies covered 2.8 million people in the individual health insurance market in 2009. The companies’ desire to limit payments for pre-existing conditions was implicated in application denials . . .