Carolina Residents Conned into Buying Fake Health Insurance
Could You Get Conned, Too? Tips to Avoid This Scam
Beth Wicker is now stuck with a bill totalling $17,000 and no recourse to recover the money from the company she bought a policy from. That company, called ATA, the American Trade Association, was never licensed to sell insurance in the state of South Carolina. Scott Richardson, the top insurance regulator in South Carolina, and 27 other states shut down this huge consumer fraud. But it was too late for Ms. Wicker and thousands of other victims.
How does this happen? And how does one protect oneself from this kind of blatant fraud?
Each state has its own insurance commission, with its own rules about what kinds of policies can be sold to its residents and at what prices. This may seem strange, when one normally expects that if one buys a TV, for example, that one will pay the same price and get the same features no matter where one buys it.
But with insurance, everything is different. It is left to each state to decide what is in the best interests of the state's residents. And while each commission generally tries to do a fair job, they are often staffed with people who have worked for insurance carriers, not for consumer groups or regulators.
But determining whether a company is licensed to do business in your state should be a fairly straightforward process. Simply go online to the NAIC website (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) and click on your state. You will then be at your state's insurance commission and can either find a list of companies licensed to do business in your state, or find a phone number to call for that information. You may also try googling a company name plus the word 'scam' or 'complaint' to see if anything comes up regarding dissatisfied customers.
Following through on these tips can save yourself a great deal of stress and a mountain of medical bills later on.
SOURCES:
Daniel Trotter, Thousands Conned in Fake Health Insurance Scams, WTSP.com, http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=152067&catid=58
NAIC - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, http://www.naic.org/
Published by MinnieApolis
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- A company called ATA, the American Trade Association, was never licensed in South Carolina.
- Simply go online to the NAIC website at naic.org.