Few Californians who had their health insurance illegally cancelled have taken advantage of a state settlement designed to help them. A report in the Los Angeles Daily Journal finds only about five percent of people who wanted to take part in the settlement have done so.
Last year, state regulators reached a settlement with five insurers that had improperly cancelled policies after members became sick. The agreement called for insurers to reinstate coverage for some 34-hundred people.
Bryan Liang is with the California Western School of Law. He says the settlement hasn't achieved what it was designed to do.
"This settlement process is not really reaching the people that we needed to reach, and it's also showing us that the accountability mechanism for these insurers that did these illegal activities is not actually holding these insurers accountable," Liang says.
State officials have no explanation for the low participation rate. Officials say they mailed notices out to everyone who was eligible.
