MURDER on the Cigna Express

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10581
December 21st, 2007 11:18 pm
Insurer's U-turn too late to save life of transplant teenager

· Lawyer wants company to be charged with murder
· Death inflames debate over US healthcare system

By Ed Pilkington / Guardian

The family of a California teenager plan to sue her health insurer which refused to pay for a liver transplant until hours before and she died on Thursday night.

Her family's lawyer, Mark Geragos, will ask the Los Angeles district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare, arguing that the firm "maliciously killed" Nataline Sarkisyan by its reluctance to pay for her treatment. The company reversed its stance after protesters called for a rethink, but the decision came too late.

The 17-year-old from Glendale, California, had been in a coma for weeks after complications following a bone marrow transplant to counter leukaemia.

After the operation, her liver failed and doctors referred her for an emergency transplant. Although she was fully insured and had a matching donor, Cigna refused to pay on the grounds that her healthcare plan "does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services".

Cigna's rejection on December 11 led Sarkisyan's doctors at UCLA medical centre, including the head of its transplant unit, to write a letter to protest that the treatment which they proposed was neither experimental nor unproven. They called on the firm to urgently review its decision.

a liver transplant as
"experimental, investigational and unproven"?
I thought liver transplants
had been done for years
with good success.
:shrug:

this is one seriously sick disgusting repulsive company.

I can only hope that this tragedy will be the defining moment that changes the state of health care in this country. How many more people have to die in the name of greed?

:cry:

experience with Cigna years
ago, am now dealing with that
nightmare that is Aetna.
:grr:

They sell insurance that no one can understand and that does not cover the things people expect it to. In simpler language they are selling a product that does not perform as expected by the consumer or as claimed to by the seller.

He should include fraud in addition to manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license.

Every damned actuary and accountant for Cigna should be charged with practicing medicine without a license.

What gives them the right to withhold medical treatment contrary to what a doctor prescribes? Its unbelievable how these thugs operate and even more unbelievable that they get away with it.

If they argue they can't give them the death penalty, then perhaps its time that we appeal to the supreme court to overturn that court clerk activist decision from the 1800's since they claim that it doesn't apply to them here. Either that or put an end to this criminal company once and for all! Force that Hobson's choice on SCOTUS. Either way we WIN!