Many of you may have heard or read the story reported by Reuters, that Anthem Wellpoint was singling out women with breast cancer to cancel their insurance policies; unfortunately, as is often the case with the “drive-by media” Reuters got it wrong. One of the women named in the story as having her insurance cancelled or rescinded is Robin Beaton. If Reuters would have checked its facts, they would have discovered that Ms. Beaton wasn’t even an Anthem Wellpoint policyholder, and in fact she was insured by another company, as she stated in her testimony to Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee.

Additionally, Reuters failed to mention that Anthem has rescinded less than 1% of all policies, making it a rare occurrence when a policy is rescinded for fraud. Reuters is a Belgian-based company where the National Healthcare Program doesn’t even provide comprehensive mammogram screening until age 50. They might want to emulate Anthem Wellpoint’s aggressive preventative mammography screening program, which begins at age 40. Anthem also conducts automated telephone calls to women reminding them to get their screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer and colon-rectal cancer. Perhaps that is why cancer survival rates in the US are 83.9% compared to European countries where socialized medicine gives them a 69.7% survival rate, as reported in the Lancelot Oncology Report for 2008. The Reuter’s story appears to be a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black without bothering to check the facts.