[downandout]

It seems to be happening more and more post-Obamacare. Further, this is an actual policy now, and this policy was created post-Obamacare (my incident occurred in Nevada, where they have not received permission to deny these claims like they have in other states, so apparently they feel the need to roll it out nationwide without telling anyone). There was no need for the policy before, but now apparently there is in an Obamacare world. But they can't expect people to diagnose themselves and determine whether or not a situation is an "emergency" under insurance company rules, since the symptoms of many non-life threatening conditions feel like they may be life threatening.

Unfortunately, in capitalist economies, when you use the law to put the hurt on companies, they will pass that hurt onto unsuspecting consumers. The money will come from somewhere, and it's not coming out of executives' pockets. Perhaps this is why Nancy Pelosi urged lawmakers and the public not to read Affordable Care Act before it was passed it into law [1]. Had everyone read it, they would have known that problems like this would eventually arise.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU