Monday, August 20, 2018

Fooling the health insurance company to get back money

The following question came up in a Charedi forum that I read (https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=38047). In Israel the Kupot Cholim (health insurance) will reimburse new mothers when buying breast pumps (2). Can you do the following, buy 2 breast pumps, then return them and get the money back, and then send the receipts to the insurance company and get reimbursed for the pumps and buy a baby carriage? There was a heated discussion, with many saying it is simply stealing and others coming up with various heterim as to why it is permitted.

One fascinating heter is that non-profit corporations (which is what the kupot cholim in Israel are) are simply not recognized by the Torah and any money the company has is considered ownerless and therefore there can be no issur to steal from them.

One person wrote back in the name of some dayanim, that saying that is an embarrassment to the Torah. It is basically saying that the Torah cannot deal with modern corporate concepts and of course the Torah system deals with corporations.