Blue Cross of California is having some bad luck these days. The state of California is conducting several investigations into the company’s actions and the consumer group ‘ItsOURHealthcare.org’ has recently created a website that points the finger at Blue Cross for standing in the way of health reform.

The site

The site contains several areas of interest to consumers, including sections on stifling reform, profits over people, consumer stories, news and how consumers can take action. The consumer stories are of real life Californians who have suffered at the hand of Blue Cross. For example,

From Santa Clara, CA:

A woman’s sister battled cancer for 18 long months. She thought she had good insurance through Blue Cross and that they would cover the costs, but she was wrong. She incurred $125,000 in debt because Blue Cross said all her treatments were experimental. The sister was forced to work the whole time she was in chemo. When she finished chemo, the hospital sued her and she had to take a second job just to pay the bills that Blue Cross should have covered.

From Riverside, CA:

A couple was left with $100,000 in bills when Blue Cross terminated their coverage after authorizing back and neck operations. It accused the wife of failing to disclose a 1997 back surgery and refused to reconsider after they told the company that it had made a mistake.

A copy of her application supports her contention that she disclosed the operation, including the date and name, location and telephone number of the hospital where it was performed. But Blue Cross still wouldn’t pay.

California taking action

California seems to be taking action against Blue Cross. It issued the company a $1M fine in March of 2007 after it found that the company’s policy cancellations violated state law, recently announced the results of an investigation in which the company mishandled over half of the claims files from 2004 and 2005 which were reviewed by the state and is investigating whether a $950M payment Blue Cross made to Well Point in the spring of 2007 violated the state’s terms on the acquisition.

Finally, the state will hold a public hearing in Los Angeles to see how Blue Cross has lived up to promises that it made back in 2004 as part of a $21M acquisition. If the sickofbluecross website is any indication, the company may not fare too well.