GradMed Insurance Review

This morning I was looking at reports that in nine states of our fine Union, a history of domestic violence is considered a pre-existing condition and is therefore a reason to be denied coverage. Not worth commenting on: you get it. We live in a Franz Kafka story. "I've been beaten, may I see a doctor?" "No, you cannot see a doctor, because you have been beaten. We only allow those who have not been beaten to see doctors."

The subtler, more widely exploitative insurance industry practice that I really want to talk about is an insurance company called GradMed. Students that are right out of college are some of the people most likely to be uninsured -- there's often a long unemployment period after graduation, people are generally healthy, and there's not a lot of money to go around. It would seem like this is a perfect time for insurance corporations to step in and provide...well, about the worst decision a young person can make.

GradMed is marketed through the alumni associations of various colleges (this is the part of a college that, once you graduate, sends you all kinds of mail asking for donations). They pay colleges for the right to use the school's insignia and to market directly to their students -- and I made sure to call participating colleges to make sure that this is the system. Let me be specific: the 'sponsorship' that colleges engage in is an exchange of student trust and marketing opportunities for cash royalties. No school oversees, manages, or contributes to the insurance fund in any way.

But whatever -- schools raise money all the time. Schools need all the cash they can get -- marketing to their graduates is one of the many ways they raise it. Right? Not when the policy is the most exploitative insurance contract I have ever seen. Once you select your college at their website (pick any: the policies are all basically the same) they outline a short-term (30-180 days), medium-deductible policy that pays 100% of some claims above $5,000 dollars. Here, though, is the kicker, copied straight from the site:

If you need GradMed beyond the end of your first coverage period, depending on your state of residence, you may apply for additional periods of coverage.

Any condition which may have occurred under the first policy will be treated as a pre-existing condition under your next policy. A pre-existing condition is a condition for which an insured was treated or received medical advice during the 12-month period immediately preceding the effective date.

So if you have any condition which in any way lasts longer than your coverage period, you're dumped. And you're absolutely fucked because now you can't get real insurance because you have a pre-existing condition. And we are expected to pay for this -- the quote I got for a fictitious 21-year old St. Louisan was over $100/month. Even the testimonial on the website is a freaking train wreck -- as upbeat as she may sound, the student is still negotiating for her costs to be covered, and still has mobility problems from her accident that doubtlessly need physical therapy.

What happens to a person duped into a short-term, non-renewing insurance policy? This article from Time is a pretty good example -- a man signs up for several policies in a row with Assurant, and is never uninsured, but as soon as he was diagnosed with kidney disease, it is labeled as a pre-existing condition and he is denied coverage. The whole article is summed up by Karen Pollitz, project director of Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and a leading expert on the individual-insurance market. "These short-term policies are a joke," she says. "Nobody should ever buy them. It is false security that is being sold. It's junk."

People talk about government waste, inefficiencies in Medicare, how slow the Post Office is, etc. -- but there is no comparison between those programs and the crimes of large, powerful corporations who put their full efforts into screwing people out of their paychecks. Part of me wants to call a series of alumni associations and complain -- but this is a completely legal product and they're not the real culprit for allowing it to be marketed -- the real culprit is the sociopaths in the board room who dream up this stuff in the first place, and the foot soldiers who hawk it to schools and young people who don't know better. At the heart of things, the real culprit is the system, which puts our health in the hands of the greedy.

To sum up, AVOID GRADMED LIKE THE PLAGUE. VIRTUALLY NO ONE SHOULD EVER BUY IT.

Edit: After I published this review, I had several entertaining and eye-opening run-ins with the people at Gradmed, which I describe in this entry and then in this one. Although they do nothing to protect your health or insure you in the event of illness or injury, they are very serious about marketing.