he had kidney stones and smoked. he also listed all physicians who had treated him. his of the application was accepted and coverage began in august of 2003. a year later my brother found himself inexplicably losing a large amount of weight. his wife urged him to see a doctor. in september of 2004, my 59-year-old brother at the time was diagnosed with stage 4 non-hodgkins type lymphoma. the very next day, he began an intensive course of chemotherapy treatments. due to the aggressive type of cancer he had he was given six more rounds of chemotherapy by

january of 2005. he suffered a lot during this period of time and was often unable to work. also referred to a specialist stem cell transplantation for high dose fi chemotherapy kagan more chemo to prepare for a stem cell transplant. these treatments work long and difficult in nature. in the midst of the chemo treatment he received a phone call in her letter from the insurance company stating his insurance was canceled. it was rescinded all the way back to the effective date of august 7, 2004. which was before his diagnosis for cancer. this month none of his cancer treatments would be covered at

all. most importantly, he would not be able to receive the stem cell treatment needed to save his life. my brother only have a small window of time and which to have the stem cell transplants. he needed to be scheduled within the next three to four weeks or he would not be able to have the transplant at all and his life would be and very shortly. my brother was told he was cancelled during what they called a routine review during which they claimed to discover a material failure to disclose, as they stated in their letter. apparently, in the year 2000, his trading doctor had done a ct scan which showed a small and there is some and some very insignificant gallstones. my brother was never told of

either one of these conditions, nor was he ever treated for them, nor did he ever report any symptoms for them either. after months of preparation, the stem cell transplant to not be scheduled. my brothers hope for being a cancer survivor was dashed. his prognosis was only a matter of months without the procedure. by this time, he could no longer work, and ultimately had to sell his restaurant because of it. [buzzer sounding] >> okay. >> thank you, mr. chairman. [buzzer sounding]

when i called the hospital to see if i could schedule the stem cell transplants for him because he pulls in such a weakened state both physically and emotionally i was callously told unless your brother brings in cash, and a bundle of it she's not going to get the procedure without insurance. my brother was accused by fortis insurance company of falsely stating his health insurance history despite the fact he had no knowledge of ever having any gallstones or aneurysms. luckily, i am an attorney and i was able to aggressively become involved in solving this life-threatening situation. i got on the phone and literally made dozens of phone calls day after day after day. i put my personal work aside and work on this literally round-the-clock calling people. i finally was told to contact

the attorney general's office and received immediate and daily assistance from the alana attorneys general's office and dr. babs h. waldman, the director of their health bureau. i cannot thank them enough for their daily assistance and support of myself and my brother through this difficult time. during their investigation, the located the doctor who ordered the ct scan. he was not only retired, he was on a fishing trip at the time. and through their unbelievable resolved they were able to get ahold of him on the fishing trip and he did recall -- he had no recollection -- he recalled my brother and his treatment on my brother but he had no recollection of ever disclosing the information to my brother were treating him for gallstones or a small aneurysm.

after two appeals by the illinois attorney general's office, fortis insurance company finally overturned the original decision to rescind my brothers coverage and he was reinstated without flaps. this is after weeks of constant phone calls between myself and the attorney general's office, and we were literally scrambling our by our work to get this accomplished so that my brother wouldn't lose his three or four week window of opportunity that he had prepared for and lose his opportunity to have the procedure. with the fortis insurance company did was on ethical. to deny a dying in person necessary medical treatment based upon medical conditions the patient never had knowledge of, never complained about, or had never been treated for is

cruel. it is the hope of our family that this information will benefit of their patients in need of lifesaving medical treatments and who do not have the knowledge or the means necessary to fight against the health insurance companies. it is further our desire to expose these practices of fortis insurance companies of that others do not have to suffer as victims' as my brother did. thank you very much, mr. chairman, and thank you, members of the committee for your efforts. >> thank you. ms. beaton, which like to give your opening statement now? pulled that out, take your time. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee, jerry honored to be here to share my story. my name is robert beaton, 59-years-old and i was a registered nurse for 50 years. i have insurance, i was in good health, i retired from nursing,

started my own small business, obtained a personal individual policy from blue cross blue shield in december 2007. in may of 2008i went to a dermatologist for acne, pimples. a word was written down on my chart which was considered to mean precancerous. in june, 2008i was diagnosed with invasive genetic breast cancer, a very aggressive form of cancer. i needed a double mastectomy immediately. blue cross blue shield recertified me for my surgery and hospital stay. the friday before i was to have my double mastectomy, blue cross and blue shield called me by telephone and told me that my chart was red flag to. what does that mean, i said. and they said due to the

dermatologist report and that is what the red flag is in the beginning, that i would not be able to have my surgery on monday and they launched a five year medical investigation into my medical history. i had to give them -- [inaudible] >> put it back on. just take your finger off. there you go. >> i had to give them every pharmacy, every doctor, every hospital and they threatened me if i left anything out that it would be really bad, so i truly tried everything in the world like it to list every single dr. everywhere i had ever been. i immediately got in touch with a dermatologist. he immediately called blue cross and blue shield and he begged them, he said this is a misunderstanding. he said this is not precancerous. all she has is acne pimples, please don't called her cancer

surgery for this. he was the nicest man. anyway, i was frantic. i did not know what to do. i didn't know how to pay for my surgery. the hospital wanted a $30,000 deposit. i was by myself and i didn't have that kind of money. i turned to the only person i had to turn to and that was joe barton, a congressman, joe barton. the next day, i got a letter canceling my insurance, rescinding it to the first day that they had covered me. can you imagine having to walk around with cancer growing in your body with no insurance? it's the most terrible thing in the world to not have anybody to turn to, not having any where to go. so i just can't even say how bad it was. the sad thing is blue cross and blue shield took my high

premiums the very first time i ever had a clean, the very first time and was suspected of cancer they took action against me some searching high and low. they turned over every single thing they could in my medical history to pullout anything that would cause any suspicion on me. so they didn't have to pay for my cancer. a nurse who attends my church works full-time for blue cross and blue shield. she looks through medical records searching for reasons to cancel people. she came to me and said i feel so bad. i just can't even tell you how sorry i am this is happening to you. blue cross and blue shield has control of life and death. people have to be able to count on what they have paid for, count on having insurance. blue cross and blue shield will do anything to get out of paying for cancer, anything.

the sad fact is anybody with a catastrophic illness who is not a part of a group who has an individual policy stance a really high chance of getting canceled, left out in the cold with no insurance. i go to a cancer support group every week. for girls in my cancer support group have had their insurance canceled and two of those girls have had to declare bankruptcy because of cancer. it is very difficult for me to speak out. my insurance could be canceled again. i live in fear every day of my insurance company. i looked everywhere for help. no one found anything to help me on till joe barton and christa towns and after working a long time every day they worked hard. i had given up hope. i didn't have any hope left and they never gave up hope.

they did everything they could to help me. and they got my insurance reinstated. after being diagnosed in june, 2008 with an aggressive breast cancer, i was placed back on the list to get a mastectomy which i finally got to have my cancer surgery october 2nd, 2008. my tumor grew from two to three centimeters' all the way to seven. i had to have all my lymph nodes remove in my arm, everything. delaying cancer treatment only worsens the condition, costing more to treat, and treatment is much more intensive. also the outcome is not as good. i go to chemotherapy every three weeks and i will have to be going for the next year. cancer is expensive and no one wants to pay for cancer. i pray that no one has to go

through agony that i have had to endure for one year. i do not deserve to have my insurance canceled. blue cross and blue shield set out to get rid of me. they searched high and low until they found enough to cancel me, and they did. i owe my life to joe barton. i pray that you will listen to my story and help people like me who are powerless against the big insurance companies. and today when i met mr. brereton that is the very first time i ever met him, he helped me not even knowing me, just as a good man, he helped me. i went to the county hospital, i went everywhere looking for help and you just get on a waiting list and your cancer grows so i want to thank you for listening to me and just please, do something about it because i couldn't even tell you the people i know that have been through this. thank you.

>> thanks, ms. beaton. you may want to turn off your microphone for now. now we will turn for questions and i will begin we will go for five minutes probably are now or two per panel. for the three panelists here, i would like your thoughts on information the committee gathered about the economics of rescissions for insurance companies. the three ceos who will testify after you have all made the case the companies use recission as a tool to rule out fraud by those that apply for coverage. at the same time we find these companies have also reported savings thus made $300 million as a result of rescissions from 2003, 2007, that doesn't include all the subsidiaries or files, but what we have is what we've come up with. and like i said, this doesn't include the savings gained by of wedding future medical cost of recent policy holders. let me ask each of you do you believe insurance companies use precision primarily as fraud prevention tool or cost savings instrument to help them boost

corporate profits. ms. horton? >> i think it's all about the money. >> ms. raddatz? >> [inaudible] it is absolutely about the money dewitt >> ms. beaton? >> absolutely, they will just keep on taking your money. >> each of you as i listened, ms. beaton, you were and are in, ms. raddatz, you are an attorney and as horton, you have family in the field of radiology.

they don't have the ways or means or knowledge to take the steps necessary. they don't know -- i know hundreds of attorneys. i've been practicing for a lengthy period of time. they don't know the people i know so what do they do? degette the letter and they don't get the treatment they need and many of these people died and they think that's

because they just don't know what to do, and i believe honestly that the insurance companies depend upon that lack of knowledge and lack of law, federal laws in place, and that's one of the ways they encourage profits. >> ms. beaton, do you want to add anything? >> i was going to say that a lot of people in my cancer group get letters like this, they just give up. they fade away and they die. >> well you were fortunate, ms. beaton, you had mr. congressman burton to intervene otherwise you might not be with us today. was it clear after you didn't have a u.s. congressman working on your behalf that your insurance wouldn't have been reinstated? >> there isn't a doubt in the world they wouldn't have given me the blink of an audit if it hadn't been for him and i just could never tell you how he

worked if you only knew how many hours he worked they called me every day just working hours and hours and hours. this took a long time, it was many months process. it didn't just happen overnight so for his office to take the dedication and me i will be forever grateful. if i live and don't lie of cancer it will be because of them, so only because of my congressman, only because of him did i get help for my cancer. if it wasn't for that it never would have happened. >> ms. raddatz, sort of a parallel to ms. beaton, in your brother's case the illinois attorney general's office and dr. babs had to write to letters in fact one of them -- they are in the binder if you care to look up the attorneys general's office wrote i find the behavior on the part of florida's health for the extremely on ethical. clearly there's no justification for rescinding this gentleman's

insurance beyond avoiding the cost of his treatment. to rescind terminate his policy at this point isn't only devastating but probably fatal to mr. raddatz. then in the second letter, the company finally reversed its decision so how did your brother note the assistance of the attorney general, is that through you? >> it is absolutely threw myself and like i said i even i had difficulty finding the of lead. it took me awhile to get to the attorneys general's office but we are fortunate in the state of illinois to have a health bureau and the attorney general's office. we are lucky to have an aggressive unit and they are available for the citizens of the state of illinois who go through the same situation my brother did but again, most people, you know, do not have the knowledge that all i have, and by the way it took to appeals. the first time she wrote the letter they said no.

so it took a further letter to them before they did reverse their decision. >> thank you. mr. barton for questions. >> mr. chairman, may i ask a question? >> no, it's mr. barton's unless he yields his time. >> this is purely, i noticed with so many lawyers around me there is active -- >> you should feel secure. >> it's the opposite of secure. there's an active class action suit on one of the witnesses before us? >> in california it's been going on for some time, i believe ms. horton is a plaintiff in the action. >> the switch and debate calls notwithstanding, are we subjecting ourselves to possible subpoena in back to testify in the court by the questions today for our hour opening statements today -- >> know but if you wish to we could arrange that.

>> i don't want a trip to california, last thing i want -- >> i think we are okay. we aren't asking for the nitty gritty of the lawsuit. this is an investigation and we would be exempt. >> can the council answer that for us? >> would you care to comment on that? we are an officials setting. this is an official meeting of the u.s. congress. the protection certainly helps but i don't think any can ask about the class-action suit. [inaudible conversations] >> i thank the chairman. >> mr. barton? >> thank you, mr. chairman. again, thank each of the three witnesses. i want to make a comment on what ms. beaton said about myself. there are 435 congressmen and every one of last, our job is to help constituents. i have four full-time caseworkers. mr. ryan to my left was my

district director at the time. i had christi and deborah and jody and ron and linda glesby, all of them intervened for you. i came in at the very end and talk to the president, but not just myself what every member of congress. we helped hundreds sometimes thousands of people each year. doorcase just happened to be life-and-death and we put a lot of extra effort into it because we knew how important it was to get you health care as quick as possible, but it's not just me, it's every member of congress that tries to serve our constituents. my first question will be to the gentlelady down to the far right. you said that your application -- they asked several questions several different ways and they were very tricky.

is in your understanding that that is a standard practice in the individual insurance markets? do they start out with the intention of setting you up so that later on day may disqualify you. is that your opinion? >> yes, that's my opinion. i feel they ask the same question several times so if you disclose it and one area and then don't realize you need to disclose it again they can somehow say then that he you have committed fraud. >> are you aware since your lawsuit if they've made some changes to that? >> i believe that was one of the things they were trying to negotiate with blue cross, was changing the application but i don't know what the status is. >> my next question is to the gentle lady in the middle. your brother, has he had his stem cell transplant? >> he did indeed receive dustin cell transplant.

it was extremely successful. it extended his life approximately three and a half years. he did passably january 6th 2009 and he was about to have a second stem cell transplant. unfortunately due to certain situations his daughter became ill at the last moment and said he did pass away january 6, but again, extended his life nearly three and a half years and at his age, each day meant everything to him and each day that we had him was wonderful and my daughter who is behind me and i and his wife and his other brother, richard, we spent the last 30 days every single day with him at his side and like i say, there couldn't be any better memorial to my brother than what this committee is doing. because life is so precious and in spending those last moments of his life with him for 30 days

at the end, we realize how important this work you're doing is and we just want to say again, from our family, thank you so much. we know with mr. gordon here, that you've been working around the clock seven days a week and very, very hard. and mr. gordon, thank you you and your staff for all your hard work. >> mize beaton, what have your doctors told your condition would have been had you had the mastectomy immediately as scheduled? would you have to go the chemotherapy and is it probable that the cancer would have spread to the lymph nodes? as it apparently has. >> they say every day i put off the surgery, you know, a day that the cells multiplied and grew, and i think there was a

strong chance that in the beginning maybe i didn't have to have -- i could have had a lesser surgery and not have had my lymph nodes taken out. i would have had to have chemo but maybe not for quite as long a period of time. >> if you don't -- if it's personal, it is personal, you don't have to tell, but what you tell us as much as you can about your prognosis right now? is the expectation positive for your chemotherapy and cancer remission or is it still up in the air? >> it's still up in the air. >> still up in the air. well, mr. chairman, my time is expired. i'm going to yield back. i think i speak for every member on both sides of the aisle, we want to hear from the insurance companies in the next panel. but it is clear that if in fact there is a practice of coming in

after the fact and canceling policies on technicalities we have got to do whatever is possible to prevent that. i mean, i think a company does have the right to make sure there is no fraudulent information. but it's obvious to me -- i will guarantee in ms. beaton's case there was no fraud intended and i convinced the other two witnesses that they were being truthful and honest also. and if the citizen acts in good faith we should expect the insurance companies to take their money to act in good faith also. and i will tell you, ms. beaton, we will monitor your case and we will stay in touch with blue cross blue shield of texas, and so long as you do what you're supposed to do, i will guarantee

they will do what they are supposed to do. with that, mr. chairman, i will yield back. >> thank you. ms. schakowsky for questions, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. after hearing the testimony i want to thank the winners is more for sharing this. i wanted to talk about rescissions for unrelated medical conditions. i understanding they scoured the records to find anything, but ms. beaton, let me understand what happened. after your insurance policy began, you developed breast cancer and the insurance company decided to investigate your application but it didn't find any evidence that's you had anything before you got your policy, did