LOS ANGELES, March 20 (UPI) -- A Santa Ana, Calif., couple has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Blue Cross of California, accusing the company of reneging on a contract.
The health insurer issued the healthcare coverage after the non-English speaking couple answered health questions posed by a company-provided Spanish translator, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday. Their answers were printed in English on the subsequently approved application.
When she learned the cost of an operation on her husband's clogged arteries last fall, Maria Rodriguez was glad she had signed the health-coverage contract several weeks earlier.
But Blue Cross of California later ruled Raudel Rodriguez, a 53-year-old self-employed scrap-metal hauler, failed to disclose pre-existing conditions and that made him uninsurable.
Blue Cross canceled his coverage, returned $1,700 in premiums and left the couple with a $130,000 hospital bill.
"What we want is the deal they promised us -- if we paid them, we were covered," Maria told the Times in Spanish.
Blue Cross, a unit of WellPoint Inc., declined comment.
