What Do You Mean It's Not Covered: Buying Insurance Is Like Buying a Car

A spokesman for Globe Life and Accident Co., which had written Wyant's health policy, admitted that the policy had given her only limited coverage. "Buying insurance is not a lot different than buying a car. What you buy depends a lot on what you can afford," he said. Wyant didn't have the cash on hand to pay the balance -- but she also felt she was making a principled stand. She told a local newspaper that she had paid only $30 because she felt St. Joseph's bill was too high. She was already trying to pay off another $2,600 in medical bills related to her surgery. She and her husband Roy lived on about $1,000 in monthly income, mostly from Social Security. They had no substantial assets other than their house, with about $30,000 in equity. To the hospital, Wyant's case was part of a growing problem: St. Joseph officials said the number of unpaid bills has risen significantly in the last five years because more patients are either uninsured or underinsured. A spokesperson for the hospital said that the Wyants might have been able to get financial help if they had given administrators written verification of their financial worth. Again, the Wyants were partly culpable for not responding to this point. Claudette Wyant told the local paper that she didn't do this because of miscommunication about the reason for financial disclosure and because her husband resented what he regarded as an invasion of privacy. Wyant had paid $113 a month in premiums for an individual insurance policy she had at the time of her surgery. She stopped paying the premiums on that policy after its limited coverage for her surgery. Better coverage would have cost $286 a month, which Wyant said she couldn't afford. So she went without. St. Joseph turned over the Wyants' bill to a collection company, which sued the Wyants in May 1993.