Health Insurer Must Pay $9 Million for Canceling Sick Woman's Policy

When Patsy Bates began her battle against breast cancer, she didn't expect she would also have to battle her health insurer too. Bates faced the bureaucratic diagnosis of rescission: when a health insurer retroactively cancels your insurance policy. But in a precedent-setting decision announced last week, a California judge ordered Bates' insurer to pay her more than $9 million for dropping her policy after it learned she had cancer. When Bates, a 52-year-old hairdresser, found out she had...Full Story