Met Life
Think of how it would be if life came with a crystal ball.
There would never be any surprises. We wouldn't have accidents, because we'd know they were going to happen. In fact, we'd have to get rid of the word accident, because we'd know ahead of time that mishap was coming.
Back in 1948 when my father was a football star at Kansas University, if he'd had a crystal ball, he'd have known ahead of time that he would have to turn down the 2008 Orange bowl tickets offered to the KU living legends, because he had prior commitments: taking care of his wife who suffers from dementia. But then, if he knew she was going to suffer from dementia, he might have chosen other insurance.
In fact, we'd all know ahead of time what kind of old age we'd have, and we'd be able to plan accordingly for the type of care we need.
There is no doubt that my father could have used a crystal ball back in the day when he signed up for that health insurance policy. He would not have had to spend decades paying premiums to MetLife for health insurance that would let him down when he needed it the most.
His problem right now is a whole lot bigger than missing that landmark football game. He's just at the end of his rope, since he stoically took care of our mother for as long as he could before he filed his Met Life Insurance claim. This is just the way he is: always acting above and beyond the call of duty. So after he filed his claim for help with her care, he found that there was a 100 day waiting period before the insurance policy will pay.
Legally, Met-Life is acting within their rights. But I ask you, when an agency fails to perform a morally significant action, what should we do? Because it would be morally significant for Met-Life to come to the plate on this, but if they do not, then the consequences of their inaction will be to cause harm to their very own client who has paid premiums for not days, not weeks, not months, not years, but decades.
This kind of omission of responsibility reflects on our entire culture. What kind of people are we? What kind of society do we live in when corporations can hide behind the legal "bottom line," get tangled in picayune issues and ignore the human consequence?
Where is our moral compass?
Currently, I am the President of the consulting firm, Brockovich Research & Consulting, where I am involved in numerous major environmental cases 
Comments
This story is gut wrenching. I'm dealing with similar "letter of the law" type issues with my health insurance company, relating to a recent surgery that did not go well. Now, I'm left with account-breaking costs that I can't handle, but I'll have to find a way to deal with them. The insurance company is holding fast to policy. As hard as this is on me personally, I don't blame the insurance company for following its policy that my wife and I agreed to when we began paying the premiums.
Erin, there is an unimaginably wide chasm that exists between legal versus illegal and right and wrong.
I can't begin to count the number of documents I've signed without reading them completely. I've had to learn some incredibly hard to swallow lessons. But in the end, what I agreed to I agreed to.
I'm sympathetic to your father's predicament, but as one who is learning to live with the ramifications of my ignorance I have to say that your father needed to act within the requirements of what he agreed to. Gosh, it makes me ill to say this but I find no fault in the insurance company doing what it agreed to. If and when they fail to do something they agreed to, I hope you help your father hammer the living crap out of them in court.
Posted by: Murphy | January 9, 2008 6:38 PM
Hi Erin,
Sometimes the small print doesn't seem that important when you are younger and well. I feel for your parents, 100 days is a long time, especially when your mother is so sick. God Bless them both. I hope things go as well as possible for them.
I am praying and sending Love and Strength for your Dad.
Regards Jill x
Posted by: Jill | January 11, 2008 6:07 AM
There isn't any.
My father took out a Term Life insurance policy in 1978, 25 years before his death, with options of renewall every five years until the age of sixty-five. With every five year increment, premiums increased. At the age of sixty-five his coverage reduced from 40,000,00 to 5,000.00. I understand that this is how most term life policy's work but the year prior to his 65th birthday he was never notified of the decrease in value or an option to change his policy to whole life, yet premiums increased. My father was diagnosed and bedridden with cancer at the age of 64. Two months before his 65th birthday. My mother, who had already been bedridden for 15 years was under my father's care, therefore leaving me to take over their financial and health care needs. He kept every premium notice he ever recieved in 24 years. Every five years there was a notification of the increase in premiums and the option to roll over to whole life but not one notice was sent in the months or years prior to his 65th birthday. I paid the premiums without ever having a clue to the decrease in value. Needing more money to help pay for home care for both of them, my father asked me to take out a loan for 40,000.00 in which his insurance policy would pay for at the time of his death.
No need to explain why I had to sell their home and put my mother under the care of the state in a nursing home.
Cuna Mutual did not break any contract but what they did by purposely NOT sending notice of the decrease in value was immoral, unethical and inhuman. My father, in over 24 years paid in premiums as much as it should have been worth and my mother recieved 5,000.00. She could have lived out the last two years of her life at home if only I had been informed to switch to whole life.
Posted by: Beth | February 10, 2008 11:57 AM