President Barack Obama’s signing of
the controversial Health Care Reform Act into law in the US in
March has brought with it a new problem in the form of bogus health
insurance schemes.
Insurance regulators across the
country have their hands full coping with the increase in fraud,
with the Indiana Department of Insurance alone having issued
cease-and-desist orders against seven companies purporting to be
legitimate health insurance vendors.
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According to the New York State
Insurance Department, bogus policies being marketed include those
claiming that consumers have only a limited open enrollment period
and falsely state that consumers will be left without affordable
health care if they do not buy now. Other bogus policies purport to
offer substantial discounts on health care and prescription drug
costs.
In Oregon, the regulator is warning
consumers about people peddling bogus insurance policies that claim
to represent the federal government. In some states, noted the
regulator, people are selling what they call the “ObamaCare
Insurance Policy”.
