Guest Author - Bonnie Sayers

I am a member of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Long-Term Care Workers' Union that covers the State of California. Homecare and nursing care workers throughout the State voted in September of 2006 to form ULTCW as a statewide union to focus 100% on long-term care issues. I am in Local 6434 with Tyrone Freeman as the President.

Prior to this change I was a member of the Local 434B for Los Angeles. I received a flyer in Jan of 2006 for Home Care Members of Local 434B announcing the addition of a new voluntary disability program. I sent back the form on 1/17/06 with a phone call from a Marketing Representative in April saying he was going to be in the area to discuss the insurance options with Union Members. The time options were not really conducive to my household, but I accommodated a morning visit on a Saturday.

There were lots of forms to fill out to have these insurance plans deducted from my paycheck starting on May 15, 2006. Both plans had different levels with you having to make a decision at that time. I really do not like being rushed and put on the spot.

I signed up for Allstate Personal Accident & Disability Expense Policy at $25.41 per month and the Allstate Personal Cancer Protector Policy, Level 1 at $22.00. For some reason they always deducted $49.51 from my second paycheck each month with no explanation of the extra two dollars.

The initial flyer sent to Union Members stated the following:

Allstate's Personal Accident & Disability Expense Policy

Covers accident & disability 24 hours a day on-or-off the job

No medical Exam required

Blood pressure and Diabetes accepted

Maternity covered

Choose a Disability Plan from $300, $600, $900 or $1,200 per month - tax free!

Spouse may choose a plan from $300, $600, $900 or $1,200 per month - tax free!

Pays addition dollars if Hospitalized due to an Accident

Guaranteed renewable and portable so you can take the benefit with you if you change jobs or retire.

Pays Cash Benefits Directly To You regardless of any other benefits or Insurance that you may have, including Worker's Compensation/State Disability.


Allstate's Personal Cancer Protector Policy, Level 1

No Medical Exam required
First Occurrence Benefit - pays $1,000 upon Diagnosis of Internal Cancer
Pays benefits for the following:
1. Hospital Confinement
2. In-Hospital Drugs
3. Radiation and Chemotherapy
4. Surgical/anesthesia & much, much more.

Pays benefits for Transportation cost and lodging for a second opinon

Covers 20 other dreaded diseases

Guaranteed renewable and portable so you can take the benefit with you if you change jobs or retire.

Pays Cash Benefits Directly To You regardless of any other benefits or Insurance that you may have including State Disability.

Pays Yearly Wellness Benefit

I learned during the Saturday morning visit that Skin Cancer is not a covered benefit. Their customer care center is 1-800-521-3535. The webiste is www.allstateatwork.com. The coverage is designed to provide supplemental cancer screening coverage. The wellness benfit rider is $75 per covered person, per year.

The mammography benefit rider specifies how often they pay the greater of $50 or the actual charges for a covered person. This depends on the age of the female and if a physician recommends it.

There is an Amendment from American Heritage Life Insurance Company that states "You will be given credit for premiums junder the policy at the time the premiums are actually received by us or our authorized agent. Financial Institutions (such as banks and credit unions) and employers who send your pemiums to us directlyat your request, are not our agents, and premiums paid by those parties are not credited until actually received by us."

I continued seeing the monthly deductions with no contact from the Union, Riley Marketing Services in San Jose or Allstate Work Division. In June of 2007 I received two letters from Allstate Workplace Division. The letterhead also has American Heritage Life Insurance Company listed out of Jacksonville, Florida.

These two letters had a message at the middle of the paper:

Notice of Lapsed Policy
Accident - Coverage cease date - 4/10/2007 - reinstatement amount due $76.23

Cancer - Coverage cease date - 4/10/12007 - reinstatement amount due $66.30

"We have not received the above premiums for your policy and it ha lapsed. We hope that you will carefully consider reinstating your policy so that its valuable coverage will continue to benefit you. Complete the reinstatement application enclosed and return it to us with the reinstatement amount due within 30 days to: AHLIC - jacksonville, FL."

I called the number and many other numbers to get to the bottom of this. Today is November 1, 2007 and this issue is still NOT RESOLVED. They took out the $49.51 in my last paycheck. I have called the Union, the Marketing Company and Allstate. No one seems to know where this problem started and who took the money and why the insurance policies were not paid. I was told this happened to several other policyholders.

I even called and left a message with the Union President and not even a courtesy phone call was returned. You cannot even get through to a live person at this UNION. It does not work for the people.

Interestingly, I was informed from my inital call about this that it would cost me $522.61 to get my policy back in force. Who took the money from my paycheck? Where did it go? Why can't the Union, the Agent and Allstate work to resolve this issue. It took months of calls, visits in person and letters to finally get a confirmation in September that the deductions would stop in October. Why do they need a month to stop this deduction that did not go to the Insurance Company?

Who is going to investigate this and face penalties for stealing from paychecks? Where is my refund? Where are the letters explaining this mistake? Would you trust SEIU to handle payroll deductions or Allstate Workplace Division? They said the only way to get this was through payroll deduction, so why are policyholders being penalized for internal errors?

I have stated in phone calls that I would be contacting local Los Angeles television stations that do Investigative Reporting to show my letters and my records of calls and my pay stub. I sent copies of the stubs through the mail, brought them to their offies on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles and also scanned them on my printer and emailed them.

The next step beside contacting the Media is the Department of Insurance in California. I am making a complaint and want to know why this happened and my refund gonig back to when the coverage ceased in April of 2007. That is seven months at $49.51 per month. I also want to know why the increase of $2.00 per month from what I was told during the sign up in April of 2006.

I do not trust this company and now looking into other companies for my Life Insurance, Renters Insurance, Earthquake and Automobile Insurance Policies that are through Allstate Insurance Company. At least those I pay directly.


The California Department of Insurance can be contacted at 1-800-927-HELP.