Thursday, May 08, 2014

Garcia v. PacifiCare of California (9th Cir. - May 8, 2014)

You lost your hands and legs when you were an 11-year old girl with meningitis, and now your prosthetic devices are failing and you want a replacement, eh?  And you have the audacity to want ones that actually work?

No dice.  We excluded those from your policy.  So you're stuck with whatever pieces of plastic we feel like providing rather than your fancy ones that actually allow you to live a life.

The decision says a lot about the insurer, PacifiCare of California.  One way to view its decision is as totally heartless.  The other way to view it is as sacrificing the quality of life of one of its insureds so that the premiums of its others are diminished by an infinitesimal fraction of a penny each year.

Either way, for truth in advertising purposes, perhaps it should change its name to PacifiDoesn'tCare.