Joshua Cosart

Joshua Cosart is a professor of public policy in health care at Cornell University.

Some of the most horrible tales of the health reform debate have concerned people with newly diagnosed diseases who, on their way to the hospital, received word that they had been dropped by their health insurer.

The practice know as rescisison is under the microscope of Reuters reporter Murray Waas, who alleges that the nation’s largest insurer, WellPoint, routinely targeted breast cancer patients for cancellation:

The women paid their premiums on time. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every policyholder diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop the policies of their breast cancer patients. The Murray Waas story has understandably generated an outpouring of outrage against Indianapolis-headquartered WellPoint.