An article in the Los Angeles Times explains in chilling detail how a 1974 federal law, originally intended to protect American citizens, has been turned on its head, and now protects disability insurance companies from citizens.
While the article focuses on UNUM Provident Corporation, that company is merely the worst of many. The facts presented here show the importance of being covered by an individual, rather than a group, long-term disability policy.
The article also exposes the common strategy of long-term disability insurers to force the successful claimants to apply for Social Security disability, then, win or lose, turn around and revoke their coverage by saying the claimant is no longer disabled under the terms of the policy.
The shameful part of the ERISA law is that claimants who are wrongfully denied benefits are entitled to sue for ONLY the past-due benefits, not for any damages suffered by the claimants during the years of subsisting without benefits.
