Is Your Health Plan Crooked?

3. Don't trust a "professional association" insurance plan or "union" plan without checking to see if it's licensed. Sellers of fake insurance often create sham associations and unions as cover. Bad plans may work through legitimate associations, too.

4. Don't buy "group health" through an individual agent. Real plans are offered through your company, an honest professional association or a real union.

Underneath all this mess lies America's health-insurance crisis. If we had universal health coverage, fake insurance wouldn't exist. But that's a dream for another day.

REPORTERS: TEMMA EHRENFELD, BARNEY GIMBEL

© 2003