Tag: health insurance

Insurance Company Death Panels

I received an e-mail plea from a member of change.org.  I underlined the critical words.

  • Danielle Gilbert is my friend and a former student, and she is fighting for her life. Danni has stage four colon cancer — but her insurance company is refusing to cover treatment that could buy her at least three more precious months with her two daughters and husband.

The email asks the recipients to petition Blue Cross to pay for the needed Avastin treatment. The treatment will cost about $8,300 per month.

“Tell Blue Cross Idaho to cover cancer treatment that could buy Danni more precious time with her daughters and husband.”

Five years ago 17 year old Nataline Sarkisyan was denied a liver transplant by her family’s health insurer, CIGNA. A community up roar resulted in a change in their decision but it was too late and she died.

The two decisions were made by insurance companies. No one called the people at the insurance companies that made those decisions death panels. There is a group, wanting to kill national health care plans, calling government bureaucrats (who are most likely doctors) using the words “death panels” to describe those decision makers.

My own mother was approaching 96 and had advanced dementia. The care facility called my sister and me to advise she was suffering with shallow breathing and might not survive the night. My sister wanted her transferred to a hospital for intensive care. I asked what the benefit would be. She won’t be able to talk and she will still be unaware of her surroundings. It was a condition that had existed for two years. My sister relented and Mom passed away at 5 a.m. the next day.

All of the facts in these cases are never totally revealed. Unrevealed in the news stories about Nataline Sarkisyan is that she had recurrent leukemia, first diagnosed at age 14, had received a bone marrow transplant from her brother Bedros, November 27, 2007. She subsequently developed complications leading to multiple organ failure, including liver and kidney failure. This information was revealed in a Wikipedia entry. An article in the N.Y. Times does an excellent job of evoking your sympathy.

  • What is the real condition of the people involved?
    What are the real costs?
    What is the outlook for their recovery?

I do not understand why insurance company panels are better equipped to make the decisions.  After all they represent “for profit” insurance companies.

Obama Care is the Wrong Plan

No doubt, health care for all Americans is a wonderful idea.

I oppose this law for one single reason.  There are no controls or limits on the cost of insurance.  The explanations I have read say that insurance companies can make reasonable rate increases to cover their costs.   What is “reasonable?”  It appears that costs will increase for three reasons.

1) 10 to 15 million people will be added to insurance company rolls without adequate payments to cover their enrollment.

2) Those excluded from insurance because of pre-existing conditions will be now be added to the plans.

3) Insurance companies will be permitted to earn 20% of the fees they charge.

Without a plan to control medical costs no plan can survive. 

Just today I received a plea from change.org to sign a petition addressed to Blue Cross of Idaho. The insurance company refuses to pay the bill for the chemotherapy drug, Avastin.  It may prolong the life of a victim of stage four colon cancer for an additional three months.  According to the New York Times the cost will be about $8,300 per month.  It seems to be OK, in the minds of many people, for insurance companies to make these decisions but many people object to a government committee making the decisions. Why? What is the difference?

A better solution to this would have been a single payer system like Medicare.  The plan that has been adopted (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is one that was proposed many years ago by Republicans.  It is the Massachusetts plan that was implemented by Mitt Romney.

Canada and most European nations seem to have addressed the issue of health care.  Care is available for everyone.  I am certain there are situations that their health care plans do not cover. Considering America is listed as the 41st in child mortality with the highest health care cost of any nation on Earth says we are doing a lousy job.  Quite shocking when we consider that the USA is the wealthiest nation on earth.