'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo
By Susie Madrak Monday Sep 14, 2009 5:00pm
It's the death of an American icon, a working-class woman who stood up for her rights and unionized her workplace. And wouldn't you know it? She fought the mills, but she couldn't make her insurance company do the decent thing until it was too late:
The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.
Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer.
She became a hero to the labor movement in the 1970s, when she took on her employer, a North Carolina textile plant, and unionized the factory floor. Her story became famous nationwide in 1975 after New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance.
In 1979, her story was turned into the movie Norma Rae, a thinly-veiled fictional adaptation of Sutton’s struggle to unionize the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Sally Field won an Oscar for her portrayal of the character inspired by Sutton.
As Daily Kos blogger hissyspit points out, last year Sutton gave an interview to the press where she described a struggle with her health insurer over treatment. The Times-News in Burlington, North Carolina, wrote in 2008:
[Sutton] went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.
“How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,” she said. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”
She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame.
In 2008, the North Carolina branch of the AFL-CIO urged supporters to donate money to Sutton’s medical fund. On its Web site, the union had stated that “after initially being denied coverage by her insurance company for life saving treatment, Sutton is now on drug and chemo therapies and has undergone two surgeries.”
In its obituary the Greensboro News-Record describes her now-legendary struggle to unionize the J.P. Stevens plant:
In 1973, a 33-year-old Sutton was working at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, where she was making $2.65 an hour folding towels. The poor working conditions she and her fellow employees endured compelled her to join forces with Eli Zivkovich, a mill worker turned union organizer, and attempt to unionize the plant employees.
Sutton eventually lost her job, but the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) won the right to represent the workers at the plant and Sutton briefly became an organizer for the union.In 1977, she was awarded back wages and her job was reinstated by court order, although she chose to return to work for just two days.
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Insurance companies (and all others for that matter) want to be treated as individuals for tax purposes, lobby purposes, campaign purposes, and you know what? They won that right.
They should also have the right to be shut down for criminally negligent homicide like an individual would, in this and hundreds of thousands of other cases.
Another hero dies an ignoble death, thanks to wingnuts and deathers and the worship of greed.
Way to go, Repukes.
with neurosurgeons and take care of patients that have meningiomas removed. There was no reason for her to die from this, it's generally a condition that can be managed to a positive end. This is such bullshit.
who denied her service she or her employer paid for... this is what's so frickin' WRONG with the U.S. healthhcare system, for krissakes!! Effin' wake up, people! EVERYONE... every single person in the U.S. of A. needs health care coverage and no denial of service EVER.
Seriously... WTF?!
Crystal Lee Sutton, you left a legacy behind you. Perhaps stories like this one will affect even more positive change after you are gone. From someone who knows the benefits of having a union shop over a non union one, thank you.
“It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”
It's not LIKE committing murder.
It IS committing murder.
No matter that it's "legal". Murder is murder. These vampires know perfectly well the fruits of their actions and they do it anyway. That's murder, plain and simple.
If these corporations want the rights of real persons, they should be held to the same laws as real persons. No favorites.
RIP Crystal.
Im sure the lunatic fringe... err I mean... the republican party, will celebrate. We'll probably see a sign that reads Bury Obamacare with Norma Rae by tomorow.
I am a republican and your ignorance offends me. I too, want everyone to have health insurance. I also want the insurance companies brought down to their knees for this kind of action BUT I don't want Obamacare. I feel his politics are not in the best interest to me and my family.
So tell us, what is Obamacare and why don't you want it?
You do know you have a choice between your current policy and a gov't option right?
BTW, republican policies have been killing us and our families for decades, why should we care about yours?
Terry Schaivo was only kept "alive" because there was money to pay for her treatment. You can bet you ass that if an insurance company was involved the plug would have been pulled and Republicans would have never said a word.
Norma Rae's death is not criminally negligent homicide, it is cold blooded murder. The insurance company and their staff involved should face criminal penalties and civil actions for punitive damages.
...IIRC, was because of a malpractice settlement. Which would have been stifled under the lawsuit caps, aka "tort reform," that are the primary (if not only) feature of Republican health care plans.
To call this MURDER is accurate and appropriate.
The Health Insurance companies are murdering Americans.
*
. . . and the insurance companies love it. I am sure the adjusters masturbate when they call people and tell them they have been subject to rescission or denied coverage. Oh, joy, someone is swimming in their own vomit and shit and will die a dog's death - I get a bonus!
isn't it?! and a bonus on top of it all... how do some people live with themselves?! I sure as shit hope that Karma really kicks in fast for these folks... instant karma!
It's sad to see such an icon pass.
I'm a healthcare professional who works at a non-profit health insurance company. We try to keep health care affordable - whether it's a private employer or state program paying for it.
I agree that the current system is broken and reform is needed. The problem is more complicated than health insurance companies.
I know very little about this case - only what is in the story. Unfortunately, I'm not aware if any chemotherapy medications that are effective for meningioma.
Let's consider that many new medications can cost several thousand dollars or more per month, and have very little proven benefit and may have dangerous adverse effects. Doctors want to help patients, but often offer chemotherapy they know has very little, if any chance of benefit for many, many reasons.
We need to ask ourselves tough questions - and the answers are more complicated than insurance companies.
would have you live in. Profits over people's lives.
For a country who took on the challenge of sending Americans to the moon... surely we can take on this challenge and become that kinder, gentler nation that GHW Bush spoke about, but has never come to pass.
They love to see people die horrific deaths if they can make money from it. Cackling sadism is the heart and soul of the GOP.
In case you haven't noticed this is the kind of country you DO live in, from health insurance to Wall Street, you are either greasing the skids of profit or cast out into the abyss.
Her job was to enrich the oligarchy so they could afford to eat fresh baby for breakfast and entertain themselves with the sex of virgins before they threw them into the volcano every night. That is what America is all about: providing the most wanton, Caligulan lifestyles for the equity holding class.
... Jesus would it be so hard for some of you to actually show some class?
There's obscenities all around you, from illegal wars to lack of health care to people using the Lord's name in vain (that would be you) and us DFHs have a lack of class!?
I don't think so. I think the personal restraint shown by us is amazing.
Christians.
" I wuz jus duin ma job!"
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I could never take a job like that. I'd rather dig a ditch. And I'm a painter. They couldn't pay me enough to screw people over like that.
and it's time for more people to say that, except folks are scared of losing their jobs because then no money or insurance-coverage-that-can-be-denied-or-revoked-because-of-one-thing-or-another...
Seriously, you couldn't pay me enough to do that type of macabre job!
... your kids were hungry.
I've dug ditches to feed myself, but I couldn't feed a family on those wages.
p.s. No benefits either.
Do insurance companies surgically remove the souls of their claims adjusters, or do they seek out employees with no souls to begin with?
That is not what a Christian would say. I am a Christian and I would not work for those "money changers". IF you were a Christian you would know that comes from Jesus throwing the money makers out of the temple. You are part of the problem by throwing rocks and not knowing what you are talking about.
All good thoughts for the family.Hopefully hey can get some peace now.
WHO IS THE INSURANCE COMPANY???? Everybody, including you, left it out?? WHY??
Damn Corporate Death Panels
. . . was whether Sally Field knew about this woman's cancer, and, if so, why she didn't pay her medical bills.
That's unfair, I know. Just because Ms. Field won an Academy Award playing her in a movie 30 years ago, doesn't mean she owed the real 'Norma Rae' anything. Nobody should have to rely on charity to get necessary medical treatment.
That was the first thing I thought too. Probably Crystal was too proud to ask SF for help, but someone in her family should have. But they probably kept thinking that the insurance company would just HAVE to decide any day now -- okay, by Monday? Friday?
And even if SF couldn't pay for it herself, she could have made a hellaciously big noise that would have shamed the insurance company.
I too want to know what insurance company it is.
Did they know each other and keep in contact for the last 30 years? Have each other over for tea? Crystal shouldn't have had to ask anybody for a handout. I can see some staffer from Fox News reading this thread and picking up on what the two of you have said and running with it as their lead story as an example of the elitist attitude of Hollywood. Don't take your eye off the ball. The problem here is Crystal's insurance company and our government's failure to fix this problem. Not that Sally Field didn't become her lifelong caretaker. Sally did her part in this story by brilliantly bringing Crystal's story to light. If that movie had never been made, I doubt we would be talking about Crystal's case now.
if you like but sometimes I wonder if “they” are culling the herd if you get my drift. Both my mom and dad died in hospitals of heart failure. They were both life long democrats. How do you explain Dick Cheney still alive with no heart?
She was 68 when she died, so shouldn't she have been covered by Medicare for the last three years? We need to know who the insurer was and when they denied the medications, and if it was part of Medicare, a Medicare supplemental policy or some other arrangement.
It's important to point this story out, but if she was denied anything by Medicare, it will just give credence to those who argue that it's government that comes between you and your doctor.
company and her untimely death from lack of appropriate care, I think this story also highlights the sorry state of labor in our country and how the decimation of the union movement has exacerbated the health care, as well as the economic crisis.
NAFTA, CAFTA and all the other nafta's and one-sided trade agreements have literally crushed US industry - many of the textile mills that Norma Rae worked so hard to unionize, have closed their doors - just check your clothing/textile labels. I'm virtually certain you won't find one in your house that says "Made in the USA".
The jobs are lost and the power of the unions to ensure fair wages and good working conditions is almost non-existent, for fear that even more jobs will be sent to China or Thailand or Mexico. As for the wage rate in the US - the post said NR was making $2.65 an hour folding towels in 1973. Just last month, 36 years later, I stopped to visit former colleagues at a conference center where I used to be employed (which is owned by a multi-national corporation) and the ladies who work in the hotel laundry are making $10/hr (no guarantee of hours and no benefits) for folding towels. The CEO of the corporation made $12 Million - and that was just his base salary! Progress......?
How can anyone defend these insurance companies? This was Murder.
Sure, she could take on some Southern cracker textile mill, but when she came head-to-head with an insurance company she learned what murdering thugs a corporation can really be composed of.
And that is what the kracker nits are fighting for huh?
I guess the insurance company didn't like her
They really really didn't like her.
Funny, but too soon.
Your soul will live on forever.
and an outstanding inspiration for woman and men every where. Shame she had to have such a terrible end.
Will Erin Brockovich suffer the same fate some day?
has money now.
Anyone with any decency at all loved this woman and may she rest in peace after her long battle with a horrible disease. Probably caused the the corporate pollution of her world on top of it. So they got even with her didn't they? They killed her outright by denying her medical care. And this is what republicans want to keep going? Let the corporations have THAT much power over life and death? Behave now, you little slaves, or we will KILL you.
Now, as for her donation plea by a union in N. Carolina. Dear sirs I never heard of this story until yesterday when I read it on Google. I didn't know she was sick or that you were taking donations for her cause. Why? Because most sane people in America HATE NORTH CAROLINA and won't stoop to reading an iota of news from there let alone visiting there for your so called vacations in the stars and bars red neck hollers.
So get a hint, union guys. Your reach does not go much far past your border. And THAT is what is wrong with your union movement itself. Only the Steelworkers have reached out to the people and allowed for membership to anyone in the nation who wants to pay dues. I know. I am not a steel worker, but I am a member of the steelworker's union. And so is every other person I know who believes in unions and who can't join one at work because of *ss h*les like the bosses in North Carolina.
This woman put everything in her life on the line to improve conditions for workers in her community, only the greedy, corporate bastards in this now-completely-oligarchical-country murdered her ANYWAY. C'mon, America! Get off the couch! If the wingnut, teabagging, brainless, sorry-excuses-for-human-beings in this country can make noise, so can everybody else! The PEN is mightier than the SWORD (or the "teabag" for that matter).
It's clear our President is too middle-of-the-road (most likely because he's afraid if he's not, he'll lose in 2012, which is likely to backfire on him anyway). We need "public servants" in this country that will carry on the Kennedy tradition and do what needs to be done for AMERICANS, not for their political ambitions. We need politicians like Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders who don't have their heads up party arses. This country is drowning in partisan BS! We need strong Independent candidates who respect the Constitution and the rights and lives of Americans.
Millions of Americans have been blackballed and prevented from working because of "perceived disability" discrimination based on their medical histories and past health insurance claims filed. This closely-guarded "secret" has been going on for YEARS--but is now "out of the closet"--and it is time for insurance companies to STOP calling the shots, STOP dictating to employers who they can and cannot hire, time for government, "self-insured," and private employers to STOP buying into the paranoia they're being fed and kowtowing to "Risk Managers" and "Counsel(s)" who care NOTHING for the lives, livelihoods, and rights of Americans, and it must stop NOW!
The Executive and Legislative branches of government care nothing for us--not really--their primary concern is campaign contributions and their own political agendas. I urge all Americans who have been victimized in this manner to get up off the couch and file legal actions against these sorry-excuses-for-Americans en masse, and you DON'T need an attorney to do it, especially if you can't afford one.
Our legal system is in as much need for reform as our healthcare system, but not the "tort reform" Obama spouts about; we need Court Reform-NOW (I will have a website up & running in the near future). "Tort reform" is being dictated to Obama by the AMA, who can't "police" themselves any better than the ABA; "self-governing" medical and bar associations are a total joke. "Tort reform" seeks to cap lawsuit awards against the guiltiest and most heinous of perpetrators in this country. We don't need "tort reform!" We need COURT REFORM! We need a Pro Se Bill of Rights in this country. We need to remove the prejudice and abuse against Pro Se (and especially Pro Se "indigent" litigants) in this country that is perpetrated by Clerks of Courts and their employees, and this country needs to respect the Constitutional rights of Americans to redress grievances in the Courts without sale, denial, or delay! This is NOT about being litigious. This is NOT about going around willy-nilly filing lawsuits strictly for financial gain. This is about righting wrongs. It is about fighting injustice. It is about speaking out when rights have been violated.
Our government doesn't listen to us. They delete e-mails without being read, and if they do return Read E-Mail Receipts, they never respond. They've stopped listening to Americans and listen instead to "Risk Managers" and "Counsel(s)" who illegally advise them against putting anything in writing. Our government and our politicians have become writhing globs of jelly (mental image here should be of the writhing mass of glob as in the film, "The Blob").
Both parties have become pre-packaged, bought-and-sold political "products," "marketed" to us, spoon-feeding what they think we want to hear, spouting forth only those utterances that they think will get them elected (or re-elected).
This is only going to get worse, America, unless we exercise what few rights we have left, before those are gone, as well.
Carol Tucker, MA
Court Reform-NOW
http://healthcare.change.org/actions/view/ple...
She was a true hero to and for so many people. ... and for those of you out there who continue to shout down universal healthcare and/or a public option, you should know this; If profit mattered less than human life and she had a public option, she likely wouldn't be dead. I'm sick and tired of these people who call themselves pro-life and then side with insurance companies, politicians and profiteering corporations who commit acts comparable with murder.
I hope that Keith Olbermann is able to do a story on this. It could not be more significant to the current state of things.
*I just discovered this site thanks to a friend and am very thankful....Great site.
Can someone please explain to me again how the private sector is going to save us from those terrible death panels ex-Gov Palin warned us about?
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