Book Detailed Mother's Fight With Disability Insurer To Cover Medical Expenses

Dunham's Disability Insurance Policy “Contained A Clause Allowing The Company To Deny Any Claim Related To A Preexisting Medical Condition.” From Janny Scott's book A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother:

Ann's compensation for her job in Jakarta had included health insurance, which covered most of the costs of her medical treatment. She had even had a physical to qualify -- an examination she said had required six separate office visits in Jakarta. Once she was back in Hawaii, the hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month. To cover those charges as well as living expenses, she filed a separate claim under her employer's disability insurance policy. That policy, however, contained a clause allowing the company to deny any claim related to a preexisting medical condition. If, during the three months before starting work, a patient had seen a doctor or had been treated for the condition that caused the disability for which they later wanted coverage, the insurance company would not compensate the patient for lost pay.

In late April [1995], a representative of the insurance company, CIGNA, notified Ann that the company had begun evaluating her disability claim. (According to CIGNA, the disability policy was underwritten by Life Insurance Company of North America, a subsidiary of CIGNA.) In the meantime, the representative suggested that Ann find out if she was eligible for benefits under the Social Security system. Ann had already been told by Social Security Administration officials in Honolulu that she was not eligible: She had not earned enough credits in the previous ten years to be eligible for Social Security disability income, and she was ineligible for benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program for disabled people with limited resources because she owned an asset worth more than $2,000, an Individual Retirement Account. [Janny Scott, A Singular Woman, Pages 335-336]

Disability Insurance Company Claimed Dunham Had Pre-Existing Condition, Denied Her Claim. From A Singular Woman:

In mid-August, CIGNA denied Ann's claim on the basis of her visit to the New York gynecologist two and a half months before she started work in Jakarta. [Gynecologist Barbara] Shortle's office notes indicated that she had formed a working hypothesis of uterine cancer, though Ann said Shortle never discussed that hypothesis with her. When I spoke with Shortle, she said it was quite possible that she had not told Ann of her suspicions. “Whenever you do a D and C on any woman who has bleeding on and off, you're always doing it to rule out uterine cancer,” she said. But, she said, the procedure can be therapeutic as well as diagnostic. She might not, at that point, tell a patient her thinking. [Janny Scott, A Singular Woman, Pages 337-338]

Right-Wing Media Misrepresent Book Account, Attack Obama's Mother

Malkin Falsely Suggests Denial Of Insurance Claim Had Nothing To Do With Restriction On Pre-Existing Conditions. From Michelle Malkin's syndicated column:

Is there a health insurance horror story disseminated by the White House and its allies that ever turned out to be true? Obamacare advocates have exercised more artistic license than a convention of Photoshoppers. Now, a prominent sob story shilled by President Obama himself about his own mother is in doubt. It's high past time to call their bluffs.

The tall-tale-teller-in-chief cited mom Stanley Ann Dunham's deathbed fight with her insurer several times over the years to support his successful push to ban pre-existing condition exclusions by insurers. In a typical recounting, Obama shared his personalized trauma during a 2008 debate: “For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that.”

But there was something fundamentally wrong with Obama's story. In a recently published biography of Obama's mother, author and New York Times reporter Janny Scott discovered that Dunham's health insurer had in fact reimbursed her medical expenses with nary an objection. The actual coverage dispute centered on a separate disability insurance policy.

Channeling document forger Dan Rather's “fake, but accurate” defense, a White House spokesman insisted to the Times that the anecdote somehow still “speaks powerfully to the impact of pre-existing condition limits on insurance protection from health care costs” -- even though Dunham's primary health insurer did everything it was supposed to do and met all its contractual obligations.

No matter. Expanding government control over health care means never having to say you're sorry for impugning private insurers. [Michelle Malkin, Creators.com, 7/15/11]

Wash. Times Op-Ed Claims Obama “Lie[d]” About “Worrying About ... Pre-Existing Condition.” From a Washington Times op-ed by Milton R. Wolf, “a board-certified diagnostic radiologist and cousin of President Obama”:

“I will never forget watching my own mother ... worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a pre-existing condition,” claimed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, explaining the foundation of Obamacare. This too was a lie.

Recent revelations by author Janny Scott in “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother” (Riverhead Hardcover, 2011), show that Stanley Ann Dunham, the president's mother, was in fact well-insured and, what's more, her health insurance company -- those evil corporatists -- never attempted to deny payment for her health care. Stanley Ann's out-of-pocket expenses amounted to “several hundred dollars a month.” A year after her cancer diagnosis, Stanley Ann applied for disability insurance, for which she was understandably denied. Again, it was disability insurance, not health insurance. [The Washington Times, 7/19/11]

Beck Radio Sidekick Pat Gray: Dunham “Wanted To Get Paid For Being Sick With Cancer.” From Glenn Beck's radio show:

GRAY: But you remember the other day, when he mentioned -- when we found out that the mention of his mom's insurance problem during the campaign may not have been exactly precise?

OBAMA [audio clip]: For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong with that.

BECK: OK, fundamentally wrong. What's fundamentally wrong with it?

GRAY: His story.

BECK: What do you mean?

GRAY: She wasn't being denied her treatment. She was being denied the disability benefits that she was looking for. She wanted her room and board paid for.

BECK: OK, now wait a minute. She probably had no job or a really bad job.

GRAY: No, she did. In fact, her job paid for her airfare from Indonesia, where she was not getting good quality care. In fact, they misdiagnosed her. She had cancer; they said it was appendicitis. So they flew her to Hawaii, paid for that trip. And then they paid for her health care.

BECK: The employer did?

GRAY: Yeah. So her health care covered her costs, it just didn't cover her cost of living.

BECK: Yeah, but she probably didn't have -- I mean, she had -- because she had, like, car payments to make?

GRAY: Uh-huh.

BECK: You know? She had car payments to make. She had house payments to make. You know what I mean?

GRAY: That's true. And the insurance did not take care of those things.

BECK: Right.

GRAY: And, you know --

BECK: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Didn't her employer cover those costs?

DAN: Yes. In fact, that's exactly what happened.

BECK: Yeah, I believe her job covered the cost of her house and her car.

DAN: Yes, and then the airfare when she needed -- when she got sick and needed to go back. “Hey, we got the airfare covered.” International airfare.

GRAY: She wanted to physically make money from her illness, then, essentially. She wanted to get paid for being sick with cancer. And so she was filling out the insurance forms and it just --

BECK: Well, you know why? Because her employer had hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around that they didn't need.

GRAY: They didn't need. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 7/14/11]