Fuck the insurance companies and shoot the horse they rode in on.

Imagine this: Not long after getting word that you are HIV positive, you receive a letter from your insurance carrier. They’re revoking your coverage because, upon examining your medical records, they’ve decided you knew about your condition and hid it from them. You have no idea what they are talking about; you bought this policy before the diagnosis. But when you inform them of this, and even provide some evidence that their investigation is in error, they ignore you. Meanwhile, you’re on the hook for unimaginable medical bills, since you’re uninsured and there’s not a carrier in the world that will take you now.

Jerome Mitchell didn’t have to imagine. It happened to him. According to a new story by investigative reporter Murry Waas, Mitchell in 2002 bought an individual policy as he prepared to begin college. A few months later, he learned he was HIV positive. That’s when Fortis insurance, which is now part of Assurant, informed him they were canceling his coverage. Apparently a Fortis reviewer went through his medical file and found a nurse’s note, dated from 2001, referencing his HIV status. The memo happened to be in a pile of records from 2002, suggesting it may simply have been mis-dated; even the reviewer who found it asked whether that one piece of paper was sufficient grounds for revoking coverage.

Immoral bastards!

Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell’s case reveal that Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.