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Employers use federal law to deny benefits
usatoday.com — WASHINGTON (AP) — Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer. "He was obsessed with dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.
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- xhokie, on 07/05/2008, -1/+6This is ridiculous and must be changed. We rely on these insurance benefits to take care of our loved ones in our absence. This law enables employers to pull the rug out from under those we aimed to protect.
- 4ster, on 07/05/2008, -1/+5Yeah, it pretty much sucks...ERISA says that if you get your insurance through your job's benefit plan, you can't go directly after the insurance company that provides that plan. Your only remedy is to sue the "plan." If you don't exercise that remedy, the court isn't even going to hear your claim. Normally, if an insurance company wrongfully denies your claim, you can always sue them under typical state law remedies--breach of contract, fraud, outrageous conduct, breach of fiduciary duty, bad faith...hell, even unfair and deceptive trade practices. But ERISA expressly preempts those state law remedies if you're insured through the "plan," and you must seek relief through the one avenue that ERISA allows.The problem then becomes: how the hell do I sue a "plan"? The "plan" has no trustees, no funds, no address, no personnel and no
bank accounts. It's all kind of mind boggling. - Masternajee, on 07/05/2008, -2/+2Laws are made to protect those in power since it is made by those in power. They tend to screw the average person each time.
- Ajajadude, on 07/05/2008, -0/+3You know what? Screw insurance companies. They're really good at taking your money and making sure everything is in order for them to keep getting your money, but the moment you want them to uphold their end of the contract, they turn around and do whatever it takes to make sure you don't get a thing.
- millworx, on 07/05/2008, -0/+1yeah this makes me mad. You know what makes me even more sick, is look at the insurance companies after the Katrina incident. They looked to the government to bail them out when paying the policy holders.... What good is insurance if the insurance company has to borrow from the government to pay the claims? What a crock
- JimmySpaza, on 07/06/2008, -2/+1Why is the Federal government involved anyway?!? Hasn't anyone read the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? This is an issue reserved entirely to the States and none other.
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