Bad Faith

Emmy award-winning filmmaker Barbara Donahue's short documentary Bad Faith highlights how the U.S. insurance industry is working against individuals seeking benefits for long-term disabilities, illustrating how the dire contemporary situation has its roots in the 1970s and ‘80s, a period when the insurance industry made a sweeping push to sell disability policies to young and healthy professionals. Today, an aging population and rising healthcare costs have created a very different environment, one in which many companies have adopted extensive strategies to avoid making insurance payments. The personal stories presented here are harrowing and astonishing, as the insurance companies strong-arm policyholders who lack the physical and financial capacity to put up a prolonged struggle. By automatically assuming that the majority of insurance claims are fraudulent, while also forcing policyholders to go to extremities to prove their state of health, the companies come across as greedy and callous manipulators. Another disturbing indictment of a healthcare system that fails to work for the ailing, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)