CIGNA Denies Cancer Patient Care, CEO Makes $120 Million Over Five Years - Not A Coincidence

[babylonsister]

CIGNA Denies Cancer Patient Care, CEO Makes $120 Million Over Five Years - Not A Coincidence
by: dday
Mon Sep 14, 2009 at 17:00

(I am a blogger fellow with Brave New Films on their Sick For Profit campaign. Visit us on Facebook.)


Today Brave New Films released their second installment in the Sick For Profit series, taking a look at the corrupt practices of CIGNA, denying care to their customers while their lead executives rake in millions and lead lavish lifestyles.

Video at link, or here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=371057&mesg_id=371057
The Health Insurance Racket


Meet Jo Joshua Godfrey. She had cancer without knowing for over a year.

"I would go to CIGNA and they would tell me I had bronchitis and give me medicine and send me home. No matter what medicine they gave me I wouldn't get better. Then the CIGNA Director called me up and she told me that there was nothing wrong with me at all. I called the doctor, and I came with my film and my CAT scan and he just put it in, it took exactly thirty seconds. He told me, 'You have cancer,' and he said the reason CIGNA did not want to give you your records is they've known right way back for years that you have cancer and they're not going to treat you."

CIGNA took in $19.1 billion dollars in revenue last year, with a $292 million dollar income. That doesn't include the salaries given to people like CEO Ed Hanway. He made a cool $12 million last year, and over the past five years he took in $120 million. Hanway has $28 million in unexcercised stock options. The company corporate jets, also not seen in profit statements, cost $68 million. This money is gained, as former communications director Wendell Potter says in this video, through denying claims and dumping the sick, enhancing the value of the company for Wall Street investors. The effect on people's lives, meanwhile, is tragic. Nataline Sarkysian, featured in the Americans United For Change advertisement, lost her life after CIGNA repeated denied her a liver transplant, despite the family having full coverage.

Meet Stephen Coddington, the wife of Marian, a stroke victim:

The case manager at the nursing home called me in and was really upset, and she said, "CIGNA is wanting to discontinue therapy with her. The doctors called and appeals were denied." It has been a day-in and day-out fight. Every talk that I've had with them, it's been, how can we wiggle off this hook.

This is the human cost for an insurance company's existence, for the record profits and supreme lifestyle of their executives. Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they're sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo. Why? Because the status quo pays.

more...

http://www.openleft.com/diary/15097/cigna-denies-cancer-patient-care-ceo-makes-120-million-over-five-years-not-a-coincidence

[depakid]

1. But...but... "they're not bad people."

:eyes:

[blm]

2. Why aren't there commercials with these stories running in every CorpoDem's state?

And nationally, for that matter.

[gorfle]

3. There's just no excuse.

There is no reason why we should have a middle man that skims TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of potential health care services away from the American people. And that is just the CEO's salary, for just CIGNA!

[wicket]

4. Fuckers

:mad:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. I'm the last one to defend an insurance company, BUT

in that first story the person says she "would go to CIGNA and they would tell me I had bronchitis and give me medicine and send me home. . ."

You don't go to your insurance company when you are sick, you go to the doctor or the hospital and they tell you what you do or don't have. The only thing the insurance company does is either pay or not pay the bill. I must be missing something.:shrug:

[LeftHander]

6. Many plans require pre-approval for treatment...

Docs probably were required to push the tests and results up to corporate for pre-approval. Insurance denied coverage and the docs were rewarded.