We posted this story yesterday with an update to the heartbreaking result. While battling CIGNA for a new liver, her family and friends fought and protested until CIGNA finally gave in, but it was too late—the seventeen-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan died.
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ABC has the video of the story as it unfolded. And the only mention of health care that we get from the GOP presidential candidates is to use the word “socialized” medicine, as if it’s something scary. What’s scary is what happened to Nataline. I’m sure her family is so very happy we don’t have socialized medicine today. Let’s see some Iowa residents bring this case up to Huck, Rudy/McC and Williard. They had a liver for her last week. We know the media is incapable of doing some basic reporting.
Check out guaranteedhealthcare…CNS released this statement:
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for listen to 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died last night just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry.
On Dec. 11, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA’s denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”…read on
Filed Under: Election 08, Health/Science, Scandals
Tags: health care, Scandals
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Great example of what happens with for profit health care, thanks you regressive assholes!
Someone needs to go to jail for this murder. And it ain’t the docs.
if it were up to me, cigna would be charged in the death of poor Nataline.
they would be held responsible for her death. execs would be jailed, and the company put out of business. of course, this is but one shameful and tragic event of the millions that our for-profit health industry is responsible for.
NEVER FORGET: for-profit health insurance companies profit off of reduced service. thus, cigna made money off of Nataline’s death.
8 and 9 figure net worth repubs don’t have to see victims of their donor class insurance companies when they chant “socialized medicine” at people that want Single-payer health care
the idea is to delay…
and hope the patient dies…
Site Monitor,
Since this updated story effectively kills the previous thread on the subject, which I just commented upon, might I copy my comment and post it here, since it’s relevent? I won’t make a habit of it.
[Sure. Go ahead-Sitemonitor]
I read every day and rarely ever post, but this is just the most incredibly heartbreaking story of the year. The saddest part and what is being lost is 90% of the time Natalie’s story does not make it to the national stage. Adults, teens, and children die everyday because of insurance companies brazen and outright disregard for human life. While all the insurance execs this Christmas enjoy their million dollar homes, and thousand dollar Christmas dinners, Natalie’s parents will be mourning her loss and asking God how another person could just let a 17 year old girl die.
Why aren’t the SOBs charged with murder?
Put the liver in her body and sort out who pays for it later. There should have been someone at the hospital that pushed that angle. They should have a policy for such life-saving situations knowing full-well that the insurance companies suck.
I wonder how the “for profit” health care advocates are going to spin this? “Let the market decide”? The system is broken, and even if you play by the rules and have health insurance you still can be denied care that will kill you.
Links aren’t working. Please fix.
[Thanks. I’ve emailed the link fixers-Sitemonitor]
if you go to cigna’s web page you will notice that cigna bills itself as “a business of caring”
and, suprising no one, no where in their ‘news’ section is it mentioned that cigna denied Nataline coverage, that led to her death.
and, again, this is why ron paul’s recipe for america is downright dangerous, and dennis kucinich is the only presidential candidate calling for an end to for-profit health care.
A young girl dies and some soul less fuck gets a bonus , we have got to change this Health Care for some to Health Care for all.
I can’t remember who said this a few weeks ago when talking about health insurance, but the person said, “Health insurance companies are not in business to look after our health. They are in business to make money.”
Sadly, that person is right. Just as car insurance people aren’t in the business to see that we are safe behind the wheel. They are in the business to make money.
When a health insurance company can decide what sort of treatment their customers get, something is horribly horribly wrong.
Medical treatment should not be a gamble. It shouldn’t be a game between the persuasive ability of the doctors and the insurance company to see if whether or not a life is saved.
This breaks my heart, but unfortunately doesn’t surprise.
Hopefully Nataline’s death will not be in vain. The way this story unfolded as it did (in real time, without any possibility of spinning the issue) may serve to be a tangible piece of evidence towards stifling the industrial health profit complex we now have. ALL of the presidential candidates should be asked on record their take on all of this, and then when elected, reminded of their answers.
God bless Nataline and her family. Fuck CIGNA.
…and somewhere a health insurance executive is planning a million dollar sweet sixteen party for his or her daughter.
The two news persons are liars.
It is NOT what ALL of the presidential candidates are addressing.
And cigna could have easily approved the procedure. I have no doubt cigna has blood on their hands.
Oh, but let’s not forget that Lispin’ Rudy Giuliani is OK today because of the insurance companies! No universal coverage for him - he’s against it! 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!
They should involuntarily harvest the livers of the entire executive commitee at CIGNA.
I hope her family sues their ass back to the stone-age It’s the only thing those fuckheads understand
Several months ago a friend of ours was in a terrible accident. Thankfully she lived but she was going to need a lot of physical therapy. She was in a hospital in Miami and she lives closer to Orlando area. They took her to Miami because of the extent of her injuries. When she could leave the hospital her doctor wanted her moved to a therapy facility closer to her home for convenience. Her insurance company said they would only put her in a facility in Miami. Her doctor got on the phone and threatened to go to the media with the story if they didn’t let her go back to Orlando for her therapy. When the insurance company heard that they caved and fast.
Some of these insurance companies know they are getting away with shit and they’ll continue to do it as long as they can get away with it.
It would be very interesting to determine the person(s) who, at each stage of the determination that the operation was not justified, made the determination.
Was it a clerk, reading from a standard protocol of Cigna?
Anyone care to bet that it wasn’t, at least at some stages of the determination?
Thanks, Site Monitor,
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 practicies 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 any reasonable-minded person to conclude that - they intended 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 anyone (or their survivors) who has been harmed by such criminal practices jointly seek joint criminal prosecution/civil remedies against insurance company criminals under the RICO ACT in Federal courts.
Greetings from Canada where 40 years socialized medicine had
lead us down the slippery slope to the evils of communism.
I hope her family sues their ass back to the stone-age It’s the only thing those fuckheads understand
They can’t - insurance behemoths like this are protected by the federal government for just such acts of incompetence. They’ll walk away from this with nary a hair out of place - not even a bruised ego!
Read Grisham’s RAINMAKER - one of the best novels ever written about such insurance greed!
Rub R. D’Key @ 8:
Because at the end of the day, in America, the only crime that matters is getting in the way of someone’s profit or bottom line.
This has been going on for a long time, the fact that it takes innocent people to die and an overweight film director to make a documentary about it to get people’s attention says a lot about the level of inhumanity that this society has reached.
At the end of the day, people may make a stink about it, but nothing will change. Why? Because for the most part there are plenty of selfish assholes in this society that would rather put a white hot iron coal up their rectums, that contemplate the possibility of their hard earned money being used to help someone in need other than their immediate family or friends.
Cigna’s and other health care providers are as guilty as the society which allowed a per-profit health care system to exist and be acceptable. Something that nowhere else in the industrialized world would have been even contemplated or tolerated. It speaks volumes about what our priorities are and frankly I am ashamed… $$$ is what matters at the end of the day. What is a few kids and old people have to die here and there… it is the god given right of a corporation to make $$$. We wouldn’t want a socialist system, would we? It being godless and all…
The tragic thing is that most Americans associate socialism with something bad, even though they don’t even know what socialism is or what it implies. Shame on our leaders for using such demagoguery…
I keep thinking of the scene in “Blow-Up” where the photographer is trying to explain to a room full of stoned people what he’s found and finally hisses, “can’t you understand? Someone’s been killed…”
Canuck @ 24:
You also have a lower standard of sexual morality. May Gawd have mercy on y’all…
Cigma overruled all those doctors on a procedure they originally approved…
knowing that if they held out long enough they could “make an exception”
just in time…for them. This stinking “news reporter” gets to blame “the system”
and the female “reporter” blurs it even more with the “democrates and republican
candidates” knowing all the while that while both are in bed with insurance lobbyists
the Mocrates are the only ones who are not having sex with them…which is to say
they are the only hope we have.
Bush says we are losing doctors because of frivolous lawsuits. I suggest we may be losing some of them because they are sick of working at the command of insurance companies and just getting frustrated as hell.
So insurance companies are starting to chop off the hands that feed them. They might was well declare war on the American people.
I wish that the woman from ABC would show which Republican candidates are advocating anything more than more or the same for health care in the US. In reality, they don’t even mention health care. They are oblivious to the health care crisis but outraged by illegal aliens working at low wage jobs.
If the Democratic candidates are smart, they’ll use this. I’m not a fan of negative ads, but what better way to expose the selfish scumbags running on the Repug side than to create attack ads that tell this girl’s story. On another note, I’m tired of hearing from our “leaders” how we are the most compassionate, good people on earth everytime an earthquake or flood happens in some 3rd-world country and a few plane-loads of rice are sent with U.S. stamped on them. I think Nataline’s story add some balance to that bullshit yeah?
The all-mighty dollar can turn people’s hearts to stone.
Samson- @ 12:
Caring…about profit. As a publicly held company CIGNA must, by law, maximise profit for its shareholders (BTW This worked-the stock is up from yesterday’s close). It’s fascism. The corporations have gotten the government to make profit making the law.
BIGBONEDED @ 13:
These soulless fucks also get big bonuses for laying off workers. 10% of the workforce, 1700 people. What can a guy with a family of 4 possibly need $28m for?
One thing about the media for sure, in the discussion of “universal health care”, they want to keep the term “single payer” out of the vernacular, in order to facilitate corporate welfare if universal healthcare should happen. Let’s all do our parts to inject “single payer” into the discussion.
One way to do this is, during a debate, ask “During the 2002 campaign, Ross Perot said he would study the universal health care in the countries that have it and copy the system that worked the best. Is the fact that 29 out of the 30 countries who have universal health care operate under the single payer system the reason why you aren’t taking this approach?”.
Of course, that would have to be a debate hosted other than CNN.
I suppose the question is, for those candidates who endorse the corporate welfare version of universal health care (Obama, Clinton) is to ask “Why do you think that sitting down with industry lobbyists is going to produce a cost-effective health care system when the fiduciary duties of a private company is to maximize shareholder returns?”
Compare this story to the Terry Schiavo story.
I WANT
a mathematical formula so that everytime a “health” insurance company posts it’s profits we can figure out how many procedures, surgeries, etc./ people were denied so that they could have that profit …
and then we can post that number to our blogs
further I want another formula so that we can calculate the of those that were denied procedures, surgeries, etc. how many died because of it!
This is a friend of mine’s blog - he is awaiting a liver transplant too
http://billybobswildride.blogspot.com/
(Billy Bob is what he named his liver)
Interestingly enough he took care of a friend and was with her when she died of end stage liver disease - before he was diagnosed with it too.
Here’s that story
http://robertwalkingeagle.google…epages.com/ home
I don’t care what the The Ron Paulogists (Ronnetts or Ron Paulettes) or CONS or neo-CONS think. Countries with single payer SOCIALIZED medicine their people are doing much better.
On 12/02/07 did a blog post on organ donation
“Do something great this holiday season, become an organ donor”
I am also an organ donor - I encourage everyone to be one.
(the current post on my blog about willingly burning an organ is not about transplants)
Canuck @ 24:
Can I come live with you guys, Commrade Canuksi?
Look at the Health Insurance plans of all the dem candidates. There is only one that would have prevented this tragedy, the Single Payer Plan of Dennis Kucinich. The only way to stop this madness of some unaccountable, service denier from getting between a doctor and their patient is Single Payer. When was the last time you heard of a Medicare patient being denied a bypass? To bad Nataline had not lived out most of her life so that her insurance company was the People of America instead of a subsidiary of bushco murder inc.
If you want change support the only candidate who will make change, Dennis Kucinich!
Oh, and have you signed Wexler’s petition yet? Have you asked blogs you visit to make some noise about it? Impeachment is the road to a different future, one not owned by the CIGNA’s of this world.
.
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/
I understand these cretins are in this for the money, but really, how do they sleep at night?
I don’t see why Americans should be bothered with the term “socialized medicine”. After all, they have fully embraced the fascistic-sounding “Department of Homeland Security”. I’ll take socialism anyday.
Cigna should be tried for murder BUT–what about the doctors and hospital that would not save her life until they were guaranteed their dollars?
casper46 @ 41:
On a bed that costs as much as my car.
Talk about bad publicity! Cigna is like Clarence Thomas–in the business for self-enrichment, not helping people.
Not letting Cigna off the hook for this at all, but I wonder if the policy was obtained through one of Nataline’s [parents’] employers? If the employer has purchased the group policy as a benefit for their employees (even if the employees pay for it themselves) the employer can step in and tell the insurance company to F’n pay. Whenever our insurer has jerked us around, my husband just calls his benefits office and says, “Hey, WTF?” and his employer contacts the insurer to whip them in line. I’m only saying, Cigna may not be the only responsible party to this horrible tragedy.
I can’t imagine what this family might be feeling. I am so sorry for them. I cannot find the words to express my sadness and anger.
[Edited-Sitemonitor]