Insurers increased denials by 49 percent because of pre-existing conditions

The four largest health insurance companies denied coverage to more than 600,000 individuals because of pre-existing conditions in the three years before passage of health reform and the number of coverage denials increased significantly each year, according to a report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, FierceHealthPayer reports. WellPoint (NYSE: WLP), Aetna (NYSE: AET), Humana (NYSE: HUM), and UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) denied health coverage to 49 percent more people over the past two years, refusing to pay 212,800 claims for medical treatment due to pre-existing conditions. FierceHealthPayer