The whole debate over health care makes me shake my head. Horror stories are told on both sides but this one has to strike a cord in anyone reading it.
In a statement issued yesterday after it had approved the transplant, the company said the procedure “was outside the scope of the plan’s coverage.” “… and despite the lack of medical evidence regarding the effectiveness of such treatment, Cigna HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case, and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nataline and her family at this time.”
via 17-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Dies After Transplant Is Finally Approved By CIGNA – cbs2.com.
Nice job Cigna, but the horses are truly gone. I don’t really believe anyone at Cigna really did this maliciously, and really, Mark Geragos is an advocate for the health insurance downtrodden? A lawsuit might get the ball rolling but the law needs to change.
Organ transplants are not an elective surgery. If the doctors were willing to perform the operation, then the most informed people on this case said go ahead and the insurance company was the road block. When people complain that the government will take out doctors from the decision making process, they need to see what insurance companies are doing today.
