All I Want for Christmas is...

[Drax]

Originally Posted by lookout123

because everything has a price. nothing is free.

i put a price on my health. it is the dollar amount that i pay to an insurance company every month. i receive no subsidies and no corporate breaks. the insurance company quotes what my family will cost to insure and i write the check. the money i use for that purpose would be more fun to spend elsewhere, but i decided the coverage was a top priority.

what you want is to be able to put a dollar value on your health and have someone else write the check to pay for it.

no thanks mister. there is a safety net of minimal health coverage for extreme cases. it's a pretty crappy system, but it isn't meant to be attractive. the gap between that and "good" healthcare is up to you to provide for you and yours. not my responsibility.

Ok, but what if your insurance company decides not to pay for a life-saving procedure you or your family might need done?

[binky]

Originally Posted by Drax

Ok, but what if your insurance company decides not to pay for a life-saving procedure you or your family might need done?

From today' L.A. times

Friday, December 21, 2007
Teen dies hours after liver transplant OK'd; family to sue insurer
Alicia Chang / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- The family of a 17-year-old girl who died hours after her health insurer reversed a decision and said it would pay for a liver transplant plans to sue the company, their attorney said Friday.

Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday at about 6 p.m. at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare in the case. The insurer "maliciously killed her" because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said.

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District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined to comment on the request for murder or manslaughter charges, saying it would be inappropriate to do so until Geragos submits evidence supporting his request.

Phone calls to CIGNA officials Friday were not immediately returned.

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to Cigna Corp.'s Cigna HealthCare on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant, saying the procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage.

The insurer reversed the decision Thursday as about 150 teenagers and nurses rallied outside of its office. But Nataline died hours later.

"They took my daughter away from me," said Nataline's father, Krikor, who appeared at the news conference with his 21-year-old son, Bedros.

Despite the reversal, Cigna said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline's case.

"Our hearts go out to Nataline and her family, as they endure this terrible ordeal," the company said. "CIGNA HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant."

In their letter, the UCLA doctors said patients in situations similar to Nataline's who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.

One of the doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on Nataline's case when reached at his office Friday.