A CASE FOR DISCRIMINATION

The "Patients' Bill of Rights" makes it illegal to discriminate against a patient via his treatment plan or his insurer.
 
142,000 seniors with Conseco Long-Term Care Insurance have, as of mid-November, 2008, been put in a precarious situation, by putting their policies in a stand-alone trust: The Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania. The problem of escalating rate increases threatens to drive the trust to insolvency and receivership by the commissioner of insurance of Pennsylvania.
 
The precarious nature of the trust constitutes discrimination against the elderly recipients of care according to the federally mandated "Patients' Bill of Rights" in that it threatens the viability of the ongoing care they paid for.
 
***
The recent actions of Conseco Co, an Indiana based insurance holding company, appears to have seriously put in jeopardy thousands of senior long-term care policyholders (both on benefit, and premium paying.) These policies are spread throughout the states and subject to varying regulatory agendas.
 
The policies have been transferred from Conseco Senior Health to a trust (The Senior Health Care Company of Pennsylvania) which is no longer a part of Conseco, but a stand-alone entity solely dependent for necessary reserve capitol, on the policyholders. Milliman Actuarial Company, hired by Conseco prior to the trust's approval, (in their partially released projections,) envision a series of five rate increases to make the trust solvent. the first of the rate increases is happening much sooner than anticipated. According Martin McBirney, an insurance consultant with 20 years experience in the insurance field, these rate hikes will likely drive the average annual premium to 20,000, boding for many lapsed policies. Since the necessary reserve capitol to pay policy benefits is seriously impaired, no longer having Conseco's backing, the trust is swiftly headed for insolvency and receivership. 
 
This jeopardizing of senior ongoing care in nursing homes, assisted living homes, questions the fairness of this deal between Conseco and the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner  (Conseco is licensed in Pennsylvania for this block of LTC business.) In spite of serious misgivings concerning this trust on the part of three insurance commissioners, and their pleas to hold an open hearing to discuss this matter, they were turned down citing Pennsylvania statutes not requiring a hearing.
 
The trust was approved in mid November, 2008.
 
The Patients' Bill of Rights, mandated by the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry has been violated with the creation of a company held by a trust dependent on elderly policyholders for its financial support. It makes folly of the LTC policies they signed to guarantee peace of mind in their senior years.