Health insurance scams seem to keep coming back. We have addressed the AIM Health plan on numerous occasions including this post where the plan was exposed.
You might think that was the end of it, but apparently not. We were recently contacted by an agent that sold the AIM Health plans who is looking for some advice on how to track down the promoters and hopefully get his clients claims paid.
A snowball has a better chance in Hell.
When you have been around long enough you can smell these scams a mile away. Henry and I were approached by the promoters of AIM a few years back. Wild promises were made and talk of riches for agents that sold these plans.
Henry checked with the OH DOI and I with the GA DOI.
In both cases we got similar responses.
The DOI had no knowledge of the plans, they were not filed (and consequently never approved) by the states of Ohio or Georgia and never would be.
In short, the folks selling these as "approved" plans were lying.
Been there, done that.
Employers Mutual was one of the biggest health "insurance" frauds in the last 10 years. Not the only one, but certainly one of the larger ones.
Eventually the folks who conspired to manufacture and promote Employers Mutual were tracked down and sent to prison. You can read the tale of woe here and here.
Obamacare has added to the confusion as some people believe 1) health insurance will be free, and 2) they can wait until they get sick and buy health insurance at that time.
Come 2014 some 18 million or so will indeed have free health insurance since they will qualify for Medicaid under relaxed rules but the rest of us will have to pay a premium that will be considerably higher than rates currently charged.
And unless things change, you will be able to wait until you get sick and buy health insurance but that is then, this is now.
Desperate people do desperate (and sometimes foolish) things. People who wanted to believe they could buy health insurance after they get sick and expect the plan to pay their bills forked over hard earned cash to buy plans like Employers Mutual, AIM and other frauds.
No doubt these type of scams will continue, especially after 2014 when some slick marketing organization will come up with a "health insurance exchange approved plan" that is half the rate of plans in the Exchange and folks will buy it.
Too bad the folks that push these plans don't wear a mask and carry a gun. If they did maybe fewer people would fall prey to the scam.
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