THE FREE MARKET FAIRY, MEDICAL VERSION

Let's say you've been laid off or fired and you lose your health insurance. If you were to assume that since you had it once, you could get it easily (although perhaps more expensively) again. As Warner Wolf would say, "YOU WOULD BE WRONG."

Health insurance companies can deny coverage for the flimsiest of reasons, all in the same of increasing profits.

Insurers shun those taking certain meds
How health insurers secretly blacklist those with certain ailments.
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com

Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.

Some insurers will automatically reject applicants who are using certain prescription drugs. Wellpoint denies anyone who within the past year has taken Abilify and Zyprexa for mental disorders as well as Neupogen, which is used to treat the side effects of chemotherapy. Vista lists the anticoagulant Warfarin and the pain medication Oxycontin. Both companies list insulin.

The companies also want to keep this practice a secret:

The Miami Herald asked several other major Florida insurers -- Aetna, Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida -- for copies of their underwriting guides. All refused, saying they contained propriety information and were confidential.

Searching the Web, The Miami Herald found underwriting guidelines for Coventry Health Care, which owns Vista; Wellpoint; Assurant Health; and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska.