A Rant about Pro-Rating

I think we all can agree at this point that individual health insurance in the United States feels like a scam, among other business practices and industries.

Well, check this out. Just now, I went ahead to cancel my Health Net PPO too add another chink to my recent big ol' "cancellation spree" that I'm on. The real reason, actually, is that I'm done with solo consulting, and have taken up a W2 job (with a slight paycut) with benefits, one of them being the usual medical coverage. Sidenote: I'm still a very single guy with no responsibilities, meaning no kids-- trust me, when consulting, I saw W2 as being that greener stretch of grass.

Anyway, back to topic, the one thing that operator said that just completely left-jabbed me: unlike all other cancellations I've been doing, and this being really the early part of April, and with me having already paid the April 01 to May 01 period in full to Health Net, Health Net will *NOT* issue a pro-rated refund to me.

My cancellation, at earliest, would be effective May 1, 2007.

Of all things I've cancelled, I was completely fine with, say, cancelling my GL & PL business insurance early even though I had a few more days to work because, frankly, I felt everything was even keel enough during my last few days at my last contract that nothing completely stupid and awry should occur. Sure, this was a risky move, in case I was sacked for something like a $2 million lawsuit for a database I accidentally dropped.

Now with health insurance, I was deliberately going out of my way *not* to have *any* insurance coverage gap *at all.* If I'd cancelled on the last day of March, I wouldn't have *any medical coverage* for 9 days, since my start date was April 9th. Anything could happen to me in 9 days. Meanwhile, it's silly to even think of asking my new employer to start my medical coverage early despite me officially not being part of their payroll for 9 days. But, I *want* to be covered for the 9-day gap.

How does Health Net reward me? By "stealing" $122 from me, that I have absolutely, positively no chance of using, at all.