Suck It, Health Net: No More Retro Cancellations

Looks like the recent $9 million decision against HealthNet (which was no where near a prior $89 million decision) was enough to get the CEO to declare that they'd be stopping retroactive cancellations immediately.

Good outcome, and right thing to do from an ethical/integrity standpoint. If you accept that our society has made a choice to opt for for-profit health care coverage, it still doesn't mean that those for-profit entities don't have to abide by commonly accepted business ethics.

If I enter into a "bad deal" as a company because I've not scrutinized the deal properly (e.g., shoddy underwriting in this case, one could say), then you have to live with the outcome of your decision. Changing the rules later flies in the face of business ethics.

You can bet, however, that they're going to tighten up their underwriting process a whole lot at the same time, and that it'll be a lot harder to get coverage.

My Point: Before we all rejoice in this decision, however, count on the fact that HealthNet will be tightening up their underwriting mechanisms a lot...and fewer people will be covered as they are deemed to be a "bad deal" business-wise.

Natural outcome for a for-profit process.