WellPoint barred from enrolling new patients in Medicare – Los Angeles Times

The sanctions, outlined in a letter to WellPoint from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, followed a “sharp” increase in consumer complaints, the agency said. Elderly customers were stopped from receiving essential prescription drugs, and some were overcharged because of computer mistakes, the government said.

and this:

WellPoint is the parent company of Woodland Hills-based Anthem Blue Cross of California, the state’s largest for-profit health insurer.

For-profit health insurers are in the business of making money, not insuring patients. Medicare has proven to be a lucrative business for them, particularly in the area of prescription drug benefits. The rules for prescription drug benefits are so complicated that they are next to impossible for the layperson to understand.

When people are ill, they turn to the health care delivery system to help them. When one cog in the system stalls or fails, it hangs up the entire machine. While I’m glad that WellPoint’s transgressions are on the radar of the Medicare system, it also means that seniors are left without much choice, since WellPoint is more or less the only game in town for many of them.