Insurance deal leaves a sour taste

Everyone loves a good deal.

Whether it's free appetizers during happy hour at your favorite watering hole, two-for-one boxes of cereal or finding a great outfit on the clearance rack, we're all bargain-hunters at heart.

However, Avon Township Trustee Chris Ditton might have scored the sweetest deal of all - two months of free health, dental and vision insurance for him and his family, at a cost of $1,362 per month, courtesy of the state of Illinois and Avon Township.

The deal was the end result of a strange consumer tale detailed in an On Guard story this week by Daily Herald staff writer Bob Susnjara that would seem to defy logic and common sense among those of us not employed by the government.

It started earlier this year when Ditton exercised his right under state law to obtain coverage through the local government health insurance pool for government employees. It is a group health insurance reserve fund handled by the state's Department of Central Management Services.

Avon Township officials purchased three months of insurance coverage, from April to June, for $4,086. Ditton said he was scheduled to make quarterly payments for that insurance.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Ditton canceled the policy June 1 before the three months ran out - without ever paying a dime - because he said he found a better deal through private insurance. The township, in turn, asked for and received from CMS a credit on all of the money it paid for Ditton's policy. And, CMS canceled the policy retroactively to April 1. CMS claimed the township said Ditton was "erroneously enrolled."

CMS officials noted Ditton made no claims during the coverage period.

In short, they said, Ditton's coverage never existed, so no one was made to pay.

"It's not state money, is the bottom line," CMS spokeswoman Alka Nayyar told Susnjara. "It's (Avon's) money and they got it back."

Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling, a slatemate of Ditton, denied anyone from the township told CMS that Ditton was mistakenly enrolled. Still, Yingling said, because there was no cost to the township, Ditton did not owe a reimbursement.

But anyone who has ever bought insurance knows the coverage did exist.

When Ditton and his family left the house April 2, they had full health insurance coverage for anything from strep throat to a broken foot and more. A service was rendered, payment must be made.

Little about this makes sense, but one point is clear: a sitting trustee received two months of free health insurance coverage through the township he serves, and that's not a good deal for us.