Urgent Action Memo--UPDATED
By bluegal Wednesday Dec 19, 2007 6:01pm
We got an email from The California Nurses Association:
The California Nurses Associaton are working with the family of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17 year old from Northridge, California, who is lying in the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center hoping that CIGNA will approve the liver transplant she desperately needs.
You heard that right, folks. A seventeen-year-old needs a LIVER TRANSPLANT and the insurance company is making up their mind whether to pay for it. And certain presidential candidates think we should all be required to buy "affordable coverage" from these people. Bless their hearts.
At a minimum, can you go read and comment on nyceve's dkos diary on this situation to help build a tsunami of public anger and embarass Cigna into approving this medically-necessary treatment?
Cigna? I got yer embarrassment right here. Please recommend and comment at the Kos Diary and digg this story. And thanks.
UPDATE: (Nicole) FANTASTIC news! Apparently, Cigna's offices were flooded with phone calls and all the work that CNA/NNOC coordinated to support Nataline paid off as Cigna decided late this afternoon to reverse its previous denial.
...(I)t is deplorable and appalling that CIGNA needed to have hundreds of people pounding on their doors and besieging them with calls to take the humanitarian step they should have done long before today," said Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents, who spoke at the Glendale rally.
Nataline's mother, Hilda Sarkisyan, expressed her profound thanks to CNA/NNOC. "We couldn't have done this without you helping us to stand up against this insurance company and forcing them to finally do the right thing. It is not right in this country for it to take a rally, a protest, and a major press conference to get an insurance company to listen."
"Every politician who thinks the answer to our healthcare crisis is more insurance should stop and think about Nataline Sarkysian," said (CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann) DeMoro. "Insurance is not care. Paying for insurance coverage is not the same as assuring you will receive appropriate care, even when recommended by a physician as it was for Nataline. Insurance corporations profit by denying care to the sick, and that is no way to run a humane healthcare system."
UPDATE #2: A heartbreaking end to the story. Literally as Cigna was reversing their position, Nataline took a turn for the worst. Her family opted to remove her from life support and she passed away this evening. Our hearts and prayers go to her family.
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Wow, just another American atrocity...and until we take action to fix it we must bear the responsibility for it not being fixed!
Cigna just decided to approve the surgery. These nurses deserve GREAT PRAISE for shaming that horrid company into doing what they should have done in the first place.
This is wonderful news. I say we should begin pounding insurance companies anytime they do something like this. Some religious groups set up email websites to encourage prayer for a sick person. People simply go on line and tell their story and thousands of people pray for them. Someone should set up an insurance harassment site where people should explain their plight and thousands of people could tie up phone lines and emails of these evil insurance companies. Make health care a right.
I wonder if any politicians on "the side of life" would have helped this cause had they known.
"Murder by spreadsheet" (from dkos) should be ammunition against anyone harping against nationalized healthcare.
This is great news but this is only one of thousands of stories like hers. Every story like this needs to be published to put pressure on the insurance companies to force them to do the right thing. Big insurance needs to be held accountable in every case. It's sad that it has to come to this.
Yes....scumbag asses kicked. I like it.
V V
The power of net rooters is AWESOME.
I love myself and us.
Not only do we rock...but we rule.......
Rock & Rule
jack jett
We Australians are a fairly law-abiding people.
But if a political party wanted to start an armed uprising here, they would need only announce a policy of abandoning our universal health care system and introducing a US-style privatised nightmare.
Then it'd be torches and pitchforks time.
Good luck, Ms. Sarkisyan.
Insurance is not healthcare and healthcare based on the insurance/profit model is a waste of healthcare dollars.
Can bastards like CIGNA even remember what it was like to be human beings? Or was it too long ago?
Can bastards like CIGNA even remember what it was like to be a human being? Or was it too long ago?
If you want to learn more about the CEO of Cigna go to http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/12/0BHA.html
Well, thank god they approved it - BUT . . . .
There are no words for a situation like this.
Poor Nadine - that she ever had to worry about this is an absolute crime.
*
Trittydi @ 13:
Ooooooooops.
My apologies Nataline.
*
I canna believe this!
We hafta de best bidness healthcare system in da world and y'all libs are being anti amerikun again and criticizing it!
Obviously, if that girl had money, there would be no problems! Because she is so obviously poor that she cannot afford the procedure that costs sumthin like akin $50,000 or more (piddly stuff, this), proves that she is one of them lazee welfare queens that Rush talkin' 'bout!
Now, de Amerika that we patriotz know und love is ovar!
It seems that the bidness healthcare insurance kompany surrenedereded to the commie mob that phoned them and obviousssssly threataneded them physycilly!
Commie mob rule I tell yah!
The sooner we bring tem Blackwater boyz in to do sum housecleanin' the betta off we will be!
You, negro! Braing me some sherry, boy, quickly!
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
Get used to it. Benefit denial is one of the central core issues of the future mandatory health insurance requirements.
Isn't Hillary Clinton advocating continuation of this type of healthcare. It is my understanding that she wants to continue with the status quo to appease her corporate campaign donors so that she can become President. I don't see anything different happening with Hillary's plan for healthcare. She would like you to believe she would approach the situation in a more humane way, but when it comes down to it she wants the status quo. Good luck in throwing your vote away voting for Hillary.
americangoy @ 15:
Doan be callin' Obama no 'boy' now....nor The Hill no gurl. Yah heah me! This heah has alllus been country fer Calvinists. That means if'n yer don't got the
cabbage....
Yer screwed.
And doan be talkin' no O' dat 'Class Warfare' lak that prissy John Edwards is 'cause we'll jus send BlackWater to yer 'hood and shut yer ass up.
Of course now that this mistep on the part of low level employee has been rectified we in the insurance business are back to work.
Sucking the money our of your life.
Did anybody figure what CIGNA's excuse was for originally denying coverage in this case (other than, maybe, because they didn't feel like it)?
As I recall from Michael Moore's movie, the carriers often make up some weird rationalization for just saying no.
Check out the movie, Sicko. I know truth is a
bad word but watch it anyway. We Americans love flag
pins to argue about or stupid religion but if you guys can
tear yourselves away from these important subjects
check our the movie you might learn something.
Dahgrostab'ph-r-i @ 1:
Indeed.
If there were ever anything to prove that the idea of privatized medicine is crap; I think this is it.
The sad thing is, I know full well this case is far from unique. I've read stories about people DYING because hospitals refused them treatment. Technically that's illegal; but it hasn't stopped them.
And worse - notice how this poor young woman HAD insurance and STILL was suffering?
Its not just the uninsured who are suffering in this country. Its everyone who can't pay in cash.
emobile @ 19:
According to dkos, they called the transplant "experimental." She needed it because chemotherapy hurt her liver and kidneys.
Medical decisions should be made by doctors, not accountants and businessmen.
kerplunk @ 17:
Hillary cooked up Universal Health care for all of us Merkins but
it was rejected with prejudice. You hate Hillary but your argument
about her health care is stupid. In fact you're stupid.
Now that Cigna has approved the transplant, and she'll be getting one, this story will drop off the face of the planet.
But will the transplant actually help? Everyone is acting like it's a given that she'll be saved with it. But will she?
I wonder if anyone will follow this story up in a couple of weeks to see if the transplant actually saves her life or not.
Geodude @ 12:
Thanks for this info... it's obscene that he makes SO much money leading a company that doesn't give people what they pay for... healthcare! These CEOs and corporations need to be shamed into a morality that delivers what people think they're buying. I can't tell you how many times I've said, well why do you think I was paying that insurance premium for if it wasn't to collect when the bad happened?! Geebus! Like we'd give them our money for nothing in return??!
Blue Buddha @ 23:
EXACTLY!!
Oh dear God, we shouldn't have to flood CIGNA with calls in order to save a girl.
Please, Crooks and Liars: Keep this issue (universal health-care) on the front burner all of 2008.
I firmly feel that we need to dismantle the health insurance companies in this country: They and they alone created the health-care crisis in the United States, and it's time for them to go.
There is only one health Insurance plan that will make this kind of thing not happen, SIngle Payer! Only Dennis Kucinich supports single payer. If this is really a big deal to you, then take another look at all the candidate's plans and compare with Kucinich's. You get what you vote for.
THE INSURANCE COMPANIES MAKE MORE MONEY BY DENYING HEALTHCARE TO PEOPLE.
What part of this don't republicans understand?
Maybe Jesus made more money by not helping people?
Nope, can't find that in my bible.
emobile @ 19:
Here is the excuse they gave:
Doctors said in the letter that CIGNA was denying the liver transplant because Nataline's plan does not cover "experimental, investigational and unproven services."
Source:
Unproven?
Evidently an over 50 years old medical procedure (the organ transplant) is too experimental, unproven and new for health insurance companies. The heartless bastards.
FYI, you can see a guide to presidential candidate positions on health care here:
For my money, only Kucinich has a program that I approve, since only his would remove the $660 billion dollar tumor (health insurance annual profits) from the health care equation.
Well done!
It is absolutely obscene that in this great country families and communities have to have bake sales and spaghetti feeds in order to get the medical care necessary to save their child's life. It is so very wrong. (Not speaking to this exact case, but this situation in general).
as moore showed in his film, sicko, the reason for a single payer plan has less to do with the uninsured than it does with the greedy ahole insurance companies....they want us all to die
What the problem?
Mr. G.W. Bush said all of us could get heath care in the Emergency Room.
Why didn't she go there?
Soo, no RP supporters over here?
Didn't think so.
How many other proceedures have they denied that don't get the publicity and they just hope that the people needing them just die, so that they don't have to pay.
Insurance is the biggest scam going in this country. Their job is to collect premiums, NOT to pay claims and they find all sorts of ways to deny claims.
I guess that we not only have to pay the outrageous premiums, but if we need the care for which we have paid, we have to be prepared to go to the media to make sure we get it. Embarrassing the insurance companies seems to be the only way to get them to do what they promise to do. How is a one payer system worse than this?
But wait, holdup. The rightwiners say young people don't want to pay for insurance because they really don't need it. God bless this child.
All health insurance companies SUCK.
There should be no profit in health care. And that is something that Hillary and Obama don't quite get - correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm glad this young lady will get her liver - but imagine the bills Cigna will still leave her with.
I'm married to a doctor who makes $60,000 a year. YES, that's all he makes. He works 60 hours a week. Insurance companies CHOOSE how much they will pay, the choose whether they will pay, the send MOUNTAINS of paperwork. Capitalism at its finest.
Right on!Yes...it is a shame that it takes this kind of action to get those worms to do the right thing.But they blinked!
Folks need to continue this trend...ride these money grubbing bastards like bicycles until they routinely provide the care that we pay for,like it or not.And eventually,force them to provide care for all,regardless of station.
I saw this headline at Google news today:
"Uninsured more likely to die from cancer following diagnosis"
Ya think!!!???
It could be funny,but it's not.
It's incomprehensible.
Those who are members of it should Digg this story, and help it go viral. Michael Moore was dead on right about these mercenary insurance companies. We need a universal health care system in which the insurance companies are entirely excluded from any participation whatsoever. They are killers-for-porfit.
What the fuck kind people are we that our elected leaders tolerate this kind of shit. HEr family needs to sue Cigna for RICO fraud. Cigna respresented that they would cover them, gladly took their money and no is playing run out the clock, willing to kill this girl for the sake of profit. the CEO and the boards and their medical reviewers/directors need to have all their assets and wealth confiscated from them and they themselves need to spend decades in prison.
In my state, it is automatic death penalty for anybody who kills for money. How is what the insurance companies are doing any different than contract killing?
With 2 failing organ systems, that's a 50% mortality rate to start with. Now stress her with a new liver and funky kidneys, then anti-rejection meds and steroids, infections etc, and it gets uglier. Pressuring people to pay for something that the family wants sounds nifty and altruistic but maybe she hasn't been done any favors.
DU is reporting she didn't make it. So sad.
[Have you got a link to the thread there? Sitemonitor]
"With 2 failing organ systems, that’s a 50% mortality rate to start with. Now stress her with a new liver and funky kidneys, then anti-rejection meds and steroids, infections etc, and it gets uglier. Pressuring people to pay for something that the family wants sounds nifty and altruistic but maybe she hasn’t been done any favors."
and there lies the second part of this issue.
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
However, CIGNA will keep the money as (from DKos):
"As noted in grannyhelen's comment below, the young girl justdied while awaiting the transplant. So I guess Cigna gets to keep the money."
Aren't we all happy for CIGNA?
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
CG @ 46:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...
badumpbumpbump @ 48:
This is from Michael Moore's site. Very sad. Damn the insurance companies. Damn this administration.
December 20th, 2007 10:03 pm
Girl dies while awaiting liver transplant
ABC7
WESTWOOD -- A Northridge teenager awaiting a liver transplant died Thursday after she was pulled off of life support.
CIGNA Insurance Company initially refused to cover the cost of the transplant for Natalee Sarkisian, saying the surgery was too experimental.
On Thursday, friends, family and members of a nurses association held a protest outside CIGNA headquarters in Glendale, urging the insurance company to reconsider.
During the protest, Natalee's mother got word CIGNA had changed its mind and would make an exception for Natalee's surgery.
But the decision came too late for Natalee. Just after six o'clock tonight, her condition worsened.
Natalee's family took her off life support and she passed away.
Attorneys for the Sarkisian family may pursue legal action against CIGNA HealthCare.
Stay with Eyewitness News for more on this story.
Here's the link-
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=5848163
so sad.
It's time that America turns to socialized medicine - just like what Congress and all the loyal Bushies enjoy.
Let's bury Cigna and all the other HMO's before they bury all of us.
I wish her soul well on its journey, and offer my sincere sympathy to her family and those who knew her.
Everybody please remember that although this is an extreme case, this is what happens every day in America. Insurance companies decide what medications you can have. They decide if you are sick enough to see a specialist. They decide if you warrant a particular surgery or not. This is the central point of Sicko. We have to do better.
H Edward Hanway is the CEO of CIGNA. One wonders how someone like this sleeps at night. And what will he do with that blood money, anyway? How many houses, cars, vacations, bank accounts can one have and it is "enough"?
Howie has a wife, Ellen and three children. I do not wish any of them ill, but I wonder if they know what howie does for a living, and how their food is payed for : with the blood of the innocent, the weak, and the ill.
Its disgusting things like this that make me glad I moved to Canada. But the shame of having been an American still haunts me.
May God rest her soul, and forgive the greedy, self-centered jackals that murdered her.
emobile @ 21:
I can only imagine that some dickless wonder at CIGNA looked at a spreadsheet and said "Hey, we've paid for 100 liver transplants in California this year. Time to start saying NO - let's start with this one right here. What? She's a 17 year old girl? - fuck her!"
Lollimom @ 30:
I'm not in the habit of quoting myself, but after reading the update here, I feel we must be unrelenting about this:
The US health insurance companies must be dismantled. No mercy, period.
And F Hillary's mandatory "health insurance for all" crap.
Cigna... Quallis... different state, different name, same horse shit. They're parasites. Some super greedy/ super creative asshole came up with a scheme to (I suppose) weed out frivolous claims; the more they denied, the more they made.
If not for Quallis, I could have had carpal tunnel surgery done about a month earlier. Glad I didn't need a heart or liver. The extra time they took fucking around could have meant my life.
Ozguy @ 9:
Same Here
this is the libertarians dream. Corporations are never wrong to them. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+site:www.lewrockwell.com+lewrockwe...
The real victim here is the insurance person who made the decision to deny her care in the first place. Will he still get his anticipated bonus for denying her now that she's dead and will not get the surgery?
It would be terrible to so brazenly and callously send a person to their death and not even make some money from it.
If only they could deny everyone health care but still get us to pay our insurance premiums. We truly are suckers.
jr @ 59:
Funny how Kucinich and Hillary have been mentioned in this thread so far. Gee, not a peep from the Ron Paul spambots? Hey, the free market works. It did wonders for this girl.
There might be a place for insurance companies in the future of healthcare in America. With a self insured pool of 300 million citizens, they might be contracted, for negotiated fixed fees, to do administrative work. They could then pay out of those funds several billion dollars in compensation to their CEOs.
I should have said that they could then pay out of those funds all they care to pay their CEOs, subject to the approval, of course, of their stockholders, who would be entitled to their share.
[You're still banned-Sitemonitor]
Tragedy and travesty. My condolences to the friends and family of the Sarkisyan's. Rose Ann DeMoro is righteous on this issue. Rose Ann, AFL-CIO must reflect your influence.
As someone who has watched friends die JUST FUCKING WAITING for a transplant, to hear a Insurance company being able to estantially hand this girl a death sentence makes me sick to my stomach. I wonder had the people that had the vigil for Terry Schiavo been outside this girl's window she'd still be alive. This poor girl didn't get a chance to live...does the hypocrisy of the right to lifers only escape them.
So by refusing the liver transplant when she needed it, and delaying the reversal until it was too late, the approval board members at Cigna have become guilty of manslaughter. It would be nice to see the CA state troopers knock on all their doors and put them all in handcuffs.
It might be nice to try and avoid this form of corporate murder in the future by passing a simple law. If a state approved medical doctor prescribes a drug, surgery, intervention or therapy in the best interest of a patient, that patient's insurance company WILL pay for it. Any doctor found to not be acting in the best interest of their patients will lose their accreditation and will be liable for their malpractice. Any hospital found to deny entry and care to anyone in need will not be allowed to operate as a hospital and will be liable for their malpractice as a institution of health.
That's a good start, but not a solution. Not that laws are enforced anymore.
americanborn @ 54:
To quote some NOFX:
"When one makes 20 million/ And ten-thousand people lose/ How does one keep from swallowing a shotgun?"
They wrote in regards to Enron, but it applies to all corporate forced-buggery. I think this applies here.
I caught this on the 10 p.m. news here in L.A. on the Tribune's station out here. at the end of the video package from earlier, the reporter was fighting hard not to break down on the air. She was visibly shaken as she reported what happened to Nataline today.
You can't help but grieve for this family who literally had their daughter ripped from theor live because of a bunch of bureaucrats thought their profits were more important than keep a young girl alive. If you're heart doesn't break after watching this, you're either ded or a Republican, or Ann Coulter(Apologies for the snark, but it fits, doesn't it?)
MURDERERS!
It is a shame that a corporation can't be charged with the crime they actually committed.
We could start with fraud, though, and proceed from there. I would soooo like to see the jerks who instituted the policy there handcuffed, fingerprinted and charged with manslaughter - or negligent homicide at least.
Perhaps one day soon in a similar case, some CEO of a major health insurance company who denies a necessary liver or heart transplant will wake in the middle of night chained to the bed to find that intruders are cutting out his or her liver or heart with a dull, rusty knife.
But but but... President Shit For Brains just said the other day that US health care was " fabulous".
Been There Done that Says:
"With 2 failing organ systems, that’s a 50% mortality rate to start with. Now stress her with a new liver and funky kidneys, then anti-rejection meds and steroids, infections etc, and it gets uglier. Pressuring people to pay for something that the family wants sounds nifty and altruistic but maybe she hasn’t been done any favors."
Somehow I don't think YOU have ever been here and done this, you apologist for murderers.
Its a bitter irony that the richest and most powerful nation on the planet cannot look after its weakest citizens.
I am ashamed, my condolences to all who knew her.
Cigna killed the girl. They should be charged with murder and that might show Blue Cross blue shield a thing or two as well.
Currently Blue Cross Blue Shield is responsible for stopping the care of all Lyme Disease sufferers nationwide. They obviously are in cahoots with the Infectious Disease Society of America, who published outrageous barbaric restrictive guidelines to treat the spirochete that causes Lyme Disease. If patients are unresponsive to the suboptimal treatment and doctors choose to retreat until better, frequently state medical boards end up involved and harrassing the doctor for providing ADEQUATE care. Then should the medical board be so lucky as to discipline the doc, Blue Cross Blue Shield moves in and sues the doctor for medical and insurance fraud.
It's all a big money game and it is killing human beings.
Par for the course for Cigna--I had them, during a brief period that I had healthcare in my adult life. I have none now.
But that's what it's all about. Money and profit trump human life. And so this young woman died for their greed. Cigna murdered her. Insurance companies routinely rape people for tens of thousands of dollars and then hurt them or outright kill them when they need the help the most.
And the pharmaceutical companies have been doing similar "good works" worldwide, working with the United States government to institute unilateral free trade agreements that go beyond the World Trade Association's TRIPS agreements--the upshot is, they block access to emergency medicine generics in developing countries. So they have murdered literally MILLIONS of people with HIV, for example, in Africa and elsewhere.
Insurance and pharmaceutical companies operate on the insanely distorted notions of the holy grail of capitalism and are products of the parasites of Wall Street. They have abrogated their responsibilities for their respective missions in favor of abject theft--and, yes. Murder.
Read, for example, Marcia Angell, MD's book, The Truth About the Drug Companies. She also discusses the role of the insurance industry in this process. It's not about health. It's about money and who cares how many people are harmed or murdered by their actions and inactions.
What is sobering about this is that CIGNA is probably one of the more enlightened and fair insurers. I have had them for about 15 years, and have found them more than satisfactory; nothing my Drs. have wanted to do has ever been denied.. But I have never had anything on the order of a organ failure or cancer, and that is when the trouble can begin.
If the girls parents had denied her heath care and she died, they would have been charge with, at least, manslaughter. Why not CIGNA?
Alessandra @ 73:
Not just ashamed, but VERY wrong. Don't mean to burst your bubble, but including the largest debt of all other countries combined, the US is FAR from the richest or the most powerful nation on THIS planet. Sorry, just being nit-picky there. Continue being ashamed, as we all should be.
The management and medical reviewers at Cigna should be charged with 2nd Degree Murder. Maybe some personal consequences would convince these companies that they cannot defer everything to their bonuses.
Mike G @ 77:
Mike, Mike, Mike, you should know the answer to this question. The girls parents make how much? Dunno, but a good guess is less than 6 figures. CIGNA on the other hand make slightly more than that. In fact their net income in the first quater this year was up 11.5% from prior year. Adjusted income from operations was up 25%. For 2006, they posted a 38% Increase over 2005. Any of this clicking yet?
Ok, if you haven't got it by now, the answer is, they are rich. They can buy and sell small countries, so the life of a young woman is of no consequence to them. Of course the fact that they make their money selling HEALTH insurance is a bit ironic, but not very troubling to their shareholders.
Col Kilgore @ 71:
Blue Buddha @ 25:
Slaw @ 24:
My deepest sympathy to Nataline's family. Nothing can bring her back but at least a little bit of justice would be for her family to sue cigna out of existence!! This case is right down John Edwards' alley!!
Another disturbing thing about this tragedy was how it was not covered by the mainstream media when there was still time to do anything about it. I found it on Michael Moore's website yesterday and did a Google search and found only 1 article in an LA newspaper, an article on a newswire (prnews or something like that) and Forbes.com. This shows how important organizations (like the California Nurses Association) and the Internet are.
Col Kilgore @ 71:
Yeah, his and cheney's is anyway...
Alessandra @ 73:
CANNOT??? make that refuses to.
jimbo92107 @ 51:
If it's good enough for them, it is good enough for the rest of us. Look at that scumbag Cheney: with all his pre-existing health problems, none of his medical procedures is ever turned down for any reason.
[deleted - off topic]
it's not the care that's bad here....it's the access to them when you need them.This young lady may not have died in vain.........she brought to the forefront the urgency for Medical Care reform..and the need for Ins Co's.......to get a heart.....sadly,the Ins Co accomplished it's original intent.Which to me .....is criminal.
I didn't read every comment here, so someone may have already pointed this out, but: Does this strike you as just the teeniest bit incongruous when you consider the Rebuplican/Fundy-fueled media circus over Terri Schiavo, a woman who was, for all intents and purposes, already dead? Yet who continues to give massive handouts and back-scratching to giant insurance companies that won't save an already-living teenager with a full and productive life ahead of her?
This country is a bunch of bullshit.
What? Why isn't her Bushed backed HSA program taking care of this? I mean she gets a tax break for God sakes, what more could she need?
that @ 61:
What are you looking for the perfect candidate? Let me know when you find them.
Time to start naming and shaming the individual people involved in the 'health insurance' industry.
When their neighbours know exactly what their respectable office job really is... killing people for profit.
The classic liberal story... Never lift a finger to agitate for anything of real concern, but when you finally do... make it personal to show your humanity, which acheives nothing to solve the problem generally. You people deserve 395 more days of Bush.
Mike G @ 77:
If not criminally, then civil suit? See Sicko. Don't be fooled by politicians trying to extend insurance coverage to all. The Christian thing to do would be to offer universal socialized care free to all, but the Christians are too busy bashing gays (when are they going after Red Lobster for the shellfish aberration?) to be bothered with any hippy Jesus love and brotherhood crap.
Enjoy.
Someone needs to see if the delay caused by the insurance company trying to save money by denying her claim initially contributed to this poor girl's death. If it had been done in a timely manner, would she be celebrating Christmas with her family, albeit from a hospital room?
At the least, Cigna should provide for the family in some way - the hospital fees should be 100% covered and something given to the family for pain and suffering. The loss of a daughter is a horrible thing to have to deal with at any time, but to have to go through this as well is unthinkable. Isn't that why they pay their premiums (or perhaps why the employer pays the premiums)?
Do onions and ketchup come with the liver?
Remember that corporations are legally persons. It is time that all corporations stand responsible for their actions as much as they benefit from their privileged status. Punishment for transgressions should include, if necessary, a death penalty of dissolution and the consequent loss of investor capital.
I'm waiting for the right-wing pundits to claim that CIGAN finally 'reviewed' the case and overturned their first ruling, but it was the parents who chose to take her off life support.
My support goes out to her family
This is the saddest thing I've read in some time...fucking money grubbing, heartless ins. companies!!!!
SemiPundit @ 96:
That's why I'm all for government regulations. The average person has laws defining what they can and cannot do. If corporations have no such laws (regulations) that's in effect creating an elite citizen, an anti-democratic idea if there ever was one.
So.... if we are paying for health insurance and then getting denied said benefits which we have paid for... shouldn't we be entitled to a refund? As I understood it...If you paid someone for a service and they didn't provide that service then you are entitled to get your money back. I understand that they have all these legalese loopholes and clauses to make what they do nice and legal though morally wrong. But still this shit must end now.
My condolences to her family.
My condolences to her family and loved ones. What a tragedy! And I wish them all the best as they go about suing Cigna and the idiots who decided to withhold care.
right on! @ 101:
Sad thing is, Cigna is insulated from liability because they bribed...rather...lobbied congress for caps on damages.
The doctor and the Hospital CEO should be in jail for murder. Imagine waiting for the check to come in before saving somebody's life!
These is no WONDERFUL news and nothing good about it.
If a company had food and you were starving TAKE THE FOOD.
The the company has medical care and they refuse to give it. TAKE IT BY FORCE.
(That movie with Denzel Washington comes to mind... You guys have been FUCKING duped into thinking that Property rights Trump Public rights. They do not. The sooner you get that thru your heads the better off you'll be.)
These are not polite times and these people are YOUR ENEMY. No corporation now is not without being circumstpect to National Crimes such as Wiretapping, getting America into an illegal war, Warcrimes and other atrocities and now torture.
This is what America stands for. A Dead girl in a hospital bed, who could have been saved, but American Greed won out again.
Congrats you Fascist Corporations, maybe, someday soon, we wil do to you what you have been doing to us for these last 50 years.
Criminals, treasonous criminals.
Oh, but let's not forget that Lispin' Rudy is OK today because of the insurance companies! Forget about the tragedy of a 17 year old losing her life due to corporate insurance incompetence - at least Rudy's still around to exploit the deaths of 3,000+ in his vain attempt to hijack (all puns intended) the White House!
I just heard this poor girl's fate on the news. I am truly saddened. I am also outraged at CIGNA. I dealt with insurance companies for six years in my job, and have seen the nonsense patients have to go through in order to get "approval" for medical procedures. Endless piles of paperwork and medical coding....
My heart goes out to Nataline Sarkisyan and her family.
This is not meant to be satirical or mean, but...
Anyone think that 'maybe' someone was sent in to 'make sure' she didn't make it?
We have a mafia running our country. No less running our health care industry.
The way things are right now, i don't see how that could be ruled out.
She was a lovely girl. Beautiful smile in that pic here. Full of life.
Hopefully some good will come from this horrible situation.
We can only hope.
RIP Nataline.
Unfortunately this seems to be standard practice with CIGNA, I've never heard a good thing about them or Kaiser either. Seems it's cheaper to let you die and face arbitration then to actually cure you. Even if you have insurance, the contracts always have lifetime outlay caps, after that we (medicare) pick up the tab.
There will never be national healthcare untill one of the large insurance Co.s loose money. Untill then pay up and don't get really sick, unless you're a repugnantone in which case you will get the best possible P.R. healthcare for all to see.
CEO's country club fees are deductable, maybe if this CEO was "kicked out" of his country club he'd get a conscience, the shoe needs to go on his foot, and walk a few miles with us commoners.
This is Rico Fraud:
Is defendant a business engaged in interstate commerce? Yes
Was their a conspiracy to commit a crime(s)? Yes, as put forward in their business plan and policies and consitant practices based upon same.
Were those crimes based upon a violation of one of the crimes listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1). Yes.
Has the execution of the conspiracy resulted in harm? Yes, in this case, death.
Is there a specific criminal activity(ies)? Yes, fraud, wrongful death, arguably, pre-meditated murder, which, industry-wide occurs is perpetrated at a rate of 18,000 deaths per year; murder for profit.
Is the criminal activity an ongoing pattern of criminality? Yes , pervasively so.
Is the pattern of criminality longterm? Yes, going back 40 years, and thus constitutes an "open-ended" pattern. The activities are continuous and related, in that the victims are the entire population of their paying customers who present severe, and expensive, medical challenges(a class of victims all of the same general description or circumstance).
Is the method of commission of each individual crime identical? Yes, and is so uniform as to serve as an "industry standard" set of practices.
Does the criminal activity involve the use of, or is it advanced through the use of, mail or wires> Yes, mailed invoices and payment of premiums; use of airwaves for advertising, mail, telephones and internet for denial of promised services.
Is the criminal activity (fraud) more than simple breach of contract, falled business activity, broken promises, negligence or dereliction? Yes, corporate policies, procedures, employee compensation pracxticies and subsequent corporate acts resulting from same make it clear that, while knowingly making representions to their intended victims that they will provide servies in return for payment of premiums, by their own documents and continuing pattern of practices - which would lead anyy reasonable minded person to conclude - that they intended, with full malice aforethought, never to provide such services.
Has the crime been committed within the court imposed 4-year statue of limitation? Yes, the death resulting from Cigna's fraud and criminal conspiracy occured within the last 24 hours.
It's time that everybody (or their survivors) who has been harmed by such criminal practices band together to seek joint criminal prosecution/ civil remedies under the RICO ACT in Federal courts.
Sorry for the typos...sleep deprivation.
As I understand, RICO damges are no subject to caps.
Two words:
Single Payer.
Only way to go. Everybody is in the same insurance pool, so there is no need to exclude anyone from coverage or withhold care to protect profits. No need for ridiculous overhead or wasteful private-sector bureaucracy.
Insurances is the world's biggest racket.
Condolences to the family on their loss.
So is this what the thugs mean when they talk about their xian nation?
Penal Colony @ 89:
excellant point.......
This is such a sad story...and should never have happened...ever.....Criminal what the Insurance Company did to this family or the girl...and the person above who mentioned Terri Shiavo- remember Bush even rushed back to the WH to work in her situation ( from a vacation) ....and yes, NO ONE ,has said hardly a word about this situtation....
UCLA Medical Center delayed life-critical treatment while waiting for word from the insurance company.
Shame on them, too.
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