How A Company Misappropriated Native American Culture to Sell Health Insurance | HealthyWomen

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'It almost seemed like we were just spending the premium money every month for really not much,' said Goodridge, whose family runs a Rockland, Maine, restaurant that is temporarily shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic. healthinsurance

Jill Goodridge was shopping for affordable health insurance when a friend told her about O'NA HealthCare, a low-cost alternative to commercial insurance.

A year-long investigation by the state insurance agency prompted by her complaint concluded she was right, uncovering a business scheme operating in the gray areas of insurance regulation and tribal law to appeal to patients looking to save money on health care. The company advertised it was"comfortably nestled under a Native American tribal corporate umbrella" and"protected by the many rights and privileges that Native American Indians enjoy today."

On top of that, Goodridge testified, the plan did not pay out when needed, including much of that $6,000-plus hospital bill. Ultimately, Cioppa ruled that O'NA had illegally operated an insurance company, falsely advertised its benefits and failed to set aside adequate reserves to pay claims. In a sworn statement filed in Maine, Zvenia said he was a member and"administrative tribal judge" of the Nottoway Tribal Community Meherrin Band of North Carolina. That tribe is not among the 573 recognized by the federal government.

Zvenia's legal work also has drawn scrutiny. In March 1999, the Nevada Supreme Court removed him from a list of non-attorney arbitrators, citing his undisclosed criminal conviction. A State Bar of Nevada investigation found Zvenia had applied to practice in immigration court, claiming to hold a law license issued by the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia. But the state bar checked with Micronesia, and it could not verify his claims.

"One of Alan's greatest achievements in his later years was acceptance as a sovereign member of the great Cherokee Nation," reads an online obituary entered into the record in the Maine proceeding.

 

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