Why We Fight: Part 7,204

Yes, it's Crooks and Liars Day here at Blue in the Bluegrass, but it's their fault because they keep picking up the best stuff.

An insurance company's "reprehensible" decision to rescind a South Carolina man's coverage after he tested positive for HIV warrants a $10 million punitive damage award, the state Supreme Court ruled.

Jerome Mitchell applied for health insurance with Fortis Insurance Co. in 2001 at the age of 17. Fortis issued him a policy after he stated that he had never been treated for an immune deficiency.

One year later, Mitchell tried to donate blood to the Red Cross, which informed Mitchell that he was HIV-positive. Mitchell's doctor confirmed this finding.

Fortis investigated Mitchell's medical history and rescinded his policy, stating that Mitchell had misrepresented his HIV-positive status.

Mitchell sued for breach of contract and bad faith and presented evidence that he would die of AIDS within four years without medical treatment.

The trial court ruled in Mitchell's favor, awarding him $186,000 in actual damages and $15 million in punitive damages.

The state high court upheld the awards, but reduced the punitive damage award to $10 million based on the ratio of the projected $1 million cost of Mitchell's treatment.

"We find ample support in the record that Fortis' conduct was reprehensible ... Fortis demonstrated an indifference to Mitchell's life and a reckless disregard to his health and safety," Justice Toal wrote.

I'd just add that the newsworthy part of this is that a state supreme court actually upheld a relatively large judgement against an insurance company. Because not only is it not news that insurance companies deny payment for life-saving procedures on any grounds they can find, but it's something that happens every goddamn day, and people die because of it.

I defy anyone to find a government bureaucrat anywhere who, in the course of his work, has ever done anything as vicious, as dangerous, as inhuman as deny payment for life-saving medical procedures to an 18-year-old.