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September 18, 2009

Insurance Firm Ordered to Pay $10M for Stripping Coverage of HIV-Positive Man
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In South Carolina, the insurance company Fortis has been ordered to pay
$10 million in damages for rescinding the health coverage of a man who
had tested positive for HIV. Jerome Mitchell obtained coverage from
Fortis in 2001, when he was seventeen years old. But Fortis dropped
Mitchell after he found out he was HIV-positive the following year. The
company accused Mitchell of misrepresenting his medical history. In a
ruling upholding a trial court judgment, the South Carolina Supreme
Court said Fortis’s actions were “reprehensible” and “demonstrated an
indifference to Mitchell’s life and a reckless disregard to his health
and safety.”



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