Patient Denied Care For Her Brain Tumor Says Insurers Want You To ‘Die Now, So We Can Save Money Lat

[Shallah Kali]

Patient Denied Care For Her Brain Tumor Says Insurers Want You To ‘Die Now, So We Can Save Money Later’
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/16/dawn-smith-cigna/

Yesterday, Dawn Smith — who has a brain tumor her insurer has refused to help treat — traveled from her home in Atlanta, Georgia to request a meeting with H. Edward Hanway, CEO of the health insurance giant CIGNA. She has been a victim of a series of insurance company abuses, and she wanted to give both Hanway and leaders in Congress a message. Hanway refused to meet with Smith, and instead dispatched his Cheif Medical Officer Jeff Kang to listen to her. Kang admitted that CIGNA’s complex claims unit requires serious changes but said his company would not even review the possibility of paying for her care until November.

Smith, a premiums-paying customer of CIGNA, was diagnosed with a type of brain tumor in 2005, then another one in 2007. Although CIGNA covered her brain biospy and some medication payments, she has battled with the insurer for years because of multiple denials of payment for the specialized care she needs to cure the tumors. After paying out-of-pocket for care in one instance, CIGNA nearly doubled her premiums anyway. In early October, a CIGNA representative told her that the co-pay on her anti-epileptic medicine was being hiked by more than $3,000 a year.

snip

Rather than use Smith’s or Sarkisyan’s premium dollars to pay for life-saving medical treatments, CIGNA has poured its cash into lobbying against health reform. Those premium dollars are also spent on two private luxory jets, sky-high CEO compensation (Hanway was paid $25.8 million in 2007 alone), and profits.
Update In an e-mail today, Dawn Smith explained that CIGNA's PR officials never explained to her why the the insurance company had denied her coverage nine times. They instead showed her "promotional YouTube videos about other cases they'd successfully resolved."

http://www.youtube.com/v/djtP4_ql8GM

[hobbit709]

1. HMO CEO's should all be denied coverage.

Then they'd know what real life is about.

[sakabatou]

2. Isn't this what Moore said?

"Dead Peasants" insurance.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. No, that is another scam. Where, without your knowledge, your employer

takes out a key-man life insurance policy out on you. "Dead Peasants" comes in when you are high risk for illness, but are not "key" to the u

[sakabatou]

9. So this is where "You're just sick, so deal with it."

[tosh]

3. OT, but would someone try to explain to me why a health insurance CEO

needs to travel by private jet? Why does said CEO need to travel at all for business reasons, or any one else in corporate offices for that matter? What's with all of this friggin' travel?

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Convenience? Key man policy? Employment benefit?

Thats the difference between the haves and the have-nots.

Greets from have-not-land :hi:

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Spending premium dollars on lobbyist activity should be illegal.

:grr:

[Zoeisright]

5. Those companies should be put on trial for murder.

If they want 'personhood', then they need to accept the responsibilities.

And the CEOs should be forced to live on the street without any money.

Why no one has 'gone postal' on an insurance company is just beyond me.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Don't get sick.....if you do.....die quickly. She unfortunately followed the Rep. plan.