Insult to Injury: Insurance, Fraud, and the Big Business of Bad Faith: Insurance Fraud and the Business of Bad Faith - How Insurance Companies Have a License to Steal from You (Bk Currents)

Ray Bourhis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576753492 ISBN 13: 9781576753491

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005

Joan Hangarter bought a disability policy in 1990 to protect her in case of serious illness. When she did become disabled a decade later, she ended up homeless and on welfare when the company refused to pay. With the help of her attorney, Ray Bourhis, she fought back, winning a $7. 7 million verdict against the company.

In Insult to Injury, Bourhis walks readers through this case study in bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers. Bourhis, a national champion of policy-holder rights, uses an engaging narrative style to reveal the back-room strategic mind-set that drives these illegal practices, how low-level employees are duped into unethical conduct, and how insurers manipulate data and witnesses in the few cases that do go to trial. He also explains the key regulatory oversights that encourage such corruption, and how the American legal system actually facilitates insurer fraud. Insult to Injury closes with a roadmap to reform -- advice no one who holds a policy can afford to ignore.

Product Description:

HardCover Pub Date: 2005 07 Pages: 263 Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Joan Hangarter bought. a disability policy in 1990 to protect her in case of serious illness. When she did become disabled a decade later she ended up homeless and on welfare when the company refused to pay. With the help of her attorney. Ray Bourhis. she fought back. winning a 7.7 million verdict against the company.In Insult to Injury. Bourhis walks readers through this case study in bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers. Bourhis. a national champion of policy-holder rights. uses an engaging narrative style to reveal the back-room strategic mind-set that drives these illegal practices. how low-level employees are duped into unethical conduct. and how insurers manipulate data and witnesses in the few cases that do go to trial. He also explains the key regulatory oversights that encourage such corruption...

Review:

"Ray Bourhis continues his strong commitment to justice by successfully taking on the insurance industry and criminal fraud in this compelling case study. He makes clear that we need to do much more to end the shameful abuses of the current system and guarantee honorable insurance coverage for every American."
--Senator Edward M. Kennedy

"What has happened to Joan Hangarter--and so many others like her--is a grave injustice.... Readers of this book should urge their congressional representatives to force the big insurance companies to honor their obligations just as the holders of those policies honor theirs."
--John Garamendi, Insurance Commissioner, State of California

"Painstakingly documented, hilarious, and insightful. A seething indictment of the out-of-control insurance industry and its friends in Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court who have given it a green light to defraud Americans."
--Amy Bach, Executive Director, United Policyholders