Denied coverage after spouse abuse

We need health care reform. Lost in the debate over public option and mandates is the fact that our insurance companies are breaking moral laws to turn a buck on our illness. If you get sick, they are now denying future coverage. Now it turns out that one of the "pre-existing conditions" they deny coverage on is being the victom of spouse abuse.

Four years earlier, Neal-Post says, she had been assaulted by her ex-husband in her home in Albuquerque, N.M. According to police records, both she and her ex-spouse were charged in the incident. The charges were later dropped.

She wasn't prepared for the blow from the insurer. "I was just flabbergasted," says Neal-Post, a 52-year-old attorney. During the altercation with her ex-husband, "I was beaten and choked in my living room," she says. "I'm trying to keep my family together and get medical care. And then you make it through, with everyone back on track, and years later, when it's no longer part of your daily life to remember that and you're feeling good, it's back again."

Advocates say it's not uncommon for people who have been abused to be denied insurance on the individual market. While the majority of states have barred insurance companies from using abuse as grounds for denying coverage, eight states and the District of Columbia don't prohibit denying coverage for that reason. And even when states do have a law, it doesn't necessarily prevent carriers from initially rejecting applicants who are victims of violence.

Article

What states haven't passed the law protecting domestic abuse victims from being stripped of their healthcare? Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming. If you map the Senators that are against healthcare reform, many of these states would show up in the No column.

Robotic Demonstration

Allied Interstate - beware

I started getting collection calls a little over a week ago. Well, not me, I don't have any debt out there besides my home payment. Someone named Peter started getting them on my home phone number.

At first I didn't think any thing of it. Wrong numbers happen. And we've only had our number for about 6 years. So, if anyone was trying to collect on a 7 year old debt from the previous owner of the phone number before it falls thru the loop hole that prevents collection, well, we are right in that window of time.

After a couple times of clarifying that "Peter" doesn't live here and they should stop calling, and the calls not stopping, I decided this needed more attention from me.

So, next time they called, I got their business information first before launching into my spiel about how we don't know Peter and they should stop calling.

Alliance Interstate

I look them up on BBB...F business rating. What does F mean?

We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.

Wonderful.

Then I did a quick Google search on them. I turn up a history of fraud, intimidation, misrepresentation, extortion and several court cases that have successfully prosecuted them. Turns out their M.O. is to keep calling a number, even if the debt holder isn't at that number, until the person pays out of annoyance.

Wonderful.

Well, that convinced me to step up the belligerence when they called. I started recording the calls and refusing to answer any questions until they gave me their business information (address, phone number) and their employee ID number. After that I informed them that I was taping the call for legal purposes.

As soon as they ask for "Peter", I would inform them that Peter doesn't live here and that I told them this X number of days ago. At that time remind them that it is against the law for them to keep calling once they have ascertained that it is a wrong number and I have ask them to stop calling. Then I ask for a manager and repeated the above message.

After which I called their 1800 number and repeated the message.

Then I filed a complaint against them with the state of Ohio (where they are) and the state of Washington.

It's been 48 hours since the last call. Since they were calling every 4 hours before then, I'm hoping this means they got the message and backed off.

This is the web, so I thought I could add my experience and if anyone is getting harassed by these bullies, you can take heart. You didn't do anything wrong, they are just slime artists.

Here is their contact information if you need it to send them a cease and desist letter or such.

Allied Interstate Inc.
3000 Corporate Exchange Drive
Columbus, OH 43231

888-748-4956


Advice:

1) Don't give them your name. All you have to do is confirm or dis confirm the name they are looking for. If you give them more then that, they will start calling you for the same debt, assuming that you are related or involved some how.

2) Take down their information. Even if you can't record the call, write down where, when, with who you talked. Keep records so you have the info if you need to escalate the problem to a lawyer.

3) Don't feel bad about asserting your rights. It's illegal for them to keep calling you if you are not the person. If you don't tell them they are committing a crime, they will assume you don't know it's illegal and keep contacting you.

There is lots of good advice out on the web about dealing with obnoxious creditors and such. Spend some time and get armed with information. Look up the THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT. It prescribes your rights and the rights of the debt collection agency.

Mark this as getting what you deserve

Conservatives on the radio have been running around making fun of waterboarding and saying it was not torture. It's not so bad...why shouldn't we do it? Heck, if you don't waterboard your kids, you're unAmerican. Besides, we need it to be safe (see it doesn't work...but we need it to survive).

Anyway. Some conservative radio shock jock decided to prove the "not torture" thesis by being waterboarded himself. Let's just say, it didn't go well for him. He was only able to withstand 6 seconds and about 3 quarts of water before he popped off the board declaring it torture and declaring he wouldn't have done it if he had known how bad it was.

Fortunatly in this age of You Tube, we have the video.



How stupid can you get. Waterboarding has a minty humble pie aftertaste.

Sounders Opening Night

Johanna bought me a season ticket to the expansion soccer team, the Sounders. I've been a big soccer supporter and follower for years and when we got a team...yippie.

Everyone rallied at Pioner square an hour before the game and we marched over to the stadium, with our marching band. The parade stretched about 5 city blocks. Good times.







The team sent out scarfs as a gift to all season ticket holders and then attached the first game ticket to the scarf. So, the whole stadium was wearing their scarfs and holding them up through out the game.





Once the game started the crowd was amazing. No one sat down the entire match. It was non-stop cheering from the opening kick thru the post game celebration. It didn't hurt that the Sounder scored early. After each goal, confetti cannons fired and scarfs were brandished like we had won the MLS cup, but its our first game, forgive us.

Here is a shot from my seat during a corner kick in the second half.



After the game, the team came down and celebrated with the fans in the south end. The supporters group was in the south end and they went crazy the entire match. They had giant 15 ft flags waving and 100 ft, section covering, signs. Our section was close enough that we got to join in with their cheers, so that was fun.




Here is the video put out by the team. It shows some of the fan celebrations. It was by far the most active crowd I've been in before and I've been in some pretty active crowds. Hopefully this is a trend and not just an opening night party.

Sounders Recap



Thanks for the ticket Johanna!

The new computer

After a month of being on and off the disabled list, we decided to replace the old computer. I'll try to keep up on some more blogging now that I've rejoined the wired world.

Don't ditch on Frank Sinatra and other things I learned in Hawaii

You learn things when you travel. Sometimes you learn about distant cultures, sometimes you learn about the things you love at home. But sometimes you learn not to ditch on the cabies choice of music. Because he controls the Air Conditioning and is likely to turn it off if you start making jokes about his favorite artist. Who knew? I wasn't even bagging on Sinatra all that much, I mearly commented that it was strange that he was coming out with a new album, considering he was dead...

Mistakes were made. Lessons learned.


We stayed at the Moana Surfrider hotel. Suposedly it's the oldest hotel on the beach. It was a beautiful colonial design. You can see it from the beach in the photo below (its the one with the Banyon tree, right next to the yellow sailboat).


It had these wonderful verandas that wrapped around the banyon tree in the court yard. We spent many hours lounging under that tree and having tea on the veranda. Good times.



Of course we went to the Arizona Memorial and Misouri.








We took a dinner cruise that turned out to be less spectacular then advertised. We got seated at the same table as a pack of howling 5 year olds and one over stressed mother. On top of that the dinner lounge act was trying to make up for lack of talent with high volume. The whole experience had more of a school cafateria vibe then a romantic sunset dinner cruise vibe. Fortunatly they had nice viewing decks, which we escaped to at first chance. This is a picture of Diamond head from the observation deck.


After the cruise we went to a comedy club. It's a vacation tradition I've been happy to see added. We always like stand up comedy, so while we are on the road, we try to catch an act at the local stand up club. What was funny, was the next night our "headliner" turned into our "waiter" for dinner. Of course we had been sitting up front in the club, so he recognized us instantly. We all had a good laugh, but I could tell he was kind of embarrased getting caught at his regular job.


We did one of those tourist subs. That was pretty cool. They've planted a bunch of artificial reefs that the sub can dive along. We saw a couple sharks, lots of tropical fish and a half dozen sea turtles. Since the reefs are artificial, the sub can get up pretty close without risking breaking coral or other enviromental harm. Here is a picture of one of the turtles.



On the last day we did a "small circle" tour of the island. Stopped at a bunch of the bays and lookouts. It was really beautiful and the guide was very knowledgeable and affable.




One of the places we stopped was an ancient Hawain temple. You can see the temple ruins in the back ground. In the fore ground is a recreation of a traditional farm. You can see the taro patties and a couple bannanna and mango trees. Off to the left was sugar cane. All of these were fed from an under ground spring, that then flowed down the hill into what was once a fish farm.


When we went to England, we would always ask the locals, cab drivers, tour guides and any royalty, "Where should we eat"? To the man, they would direct you to the nearest fish and chips shop. Which was great like the first 3 days. But then we were, you know, sick of fish and chips. But, I think they figured, hey, these guys are tourists, so send them to fish and chips. Since then, we kind of refer to the inescapable local tourist things as the "fish and chips". And I think we can safely call the hula the fish and chips of Hawaii. Every where we went some grass skirt wearing tart was waving those hands to ukalali back up.


All in all it was a really relaxing vacation. We mostly just kicked back and sat on the beach watching the waves and sipping fruity drinks. Good times.