Kanye West Hospitalization An Insurance Scam?

(Getty Images/New York Post)

Is Kanye West’s hospitalization part of an insurance scam? At least one outlet thinks so. Gossip Cop looked into the allegation.

As Gossip Cop reported, West’s “Saint Pablo Tour” was canceled on Monday, just hours before he was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation. It is likely the rapper had an insurance policy to ensure that, in the event of illness, he would still be paid for any canceled concerts and not be financially liable for contracts with venues and vendors. Now the New York Post is suggesting West was only hospitalized to get the insurance pay-out.

“People in the music industry are speculating that Kanye West was put on a psychiatric hold to recoup insurance money for the millions he would lose by backing out of his ‘Saint Pablo Tour,'” writes the paper, which quotes a “music insider” as saying, “He had just canceled for no reason, no injury, no force majeure, so they were going to lose a bunch of money. Kanye is crazy, but not crazy enough to not get his insurance money. [He] knows what he is doing.”

The purported “insider” goes on to call it a “sticky situation,” and predicts that “this will be a disputed claim” with an “intense investigation.” The tabloid further accuses West of purposefully being hospitalized to “‘clean up’ his brand.” The alleged tipster claims, “He went too far off with the rants. It was going to alienate his core fan base. There are real business people around him, including Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian, who want the payday. They needed to preserve the brand this way.”

But there’s a few problems with these theories. There is no indication that West faked his psychosis, and he in fact remains hospitalized with round-the-clock treatment. Fabricating such an illness to collect an insurance settlement would amount to fraud, which is a rather serious crime. Readers may recall that, similarly, MediaTakeOut falsely accused Kardashian of “staging” her robbery for insurance money, an untrue allegation that led to a lawsuit.

Additionally, there’s no evidence in West’s case that this incident is rehabilitating his image whatsoever. On the contrary, while the performer has received some support from fellow celebrities, many everyday people on social media have been mocking him, despite the gravity of the circumstances. It is generally not considered a career-boost when a star is hospitalized for mental illness.

Gossip Cop spoke with a rep for West, who dismissed the New York Post story as “ridiculous.” Sadly, the rapper has been battling emotional issues for quite some time. It remains to be seen what will happen with any insurance claim, but flawed articles like this only make the situation worse.