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Another problem with this is the insurance industry, per se. Insurance is about spreading risk. The Medicare system worked reasonably well controlling costs through the setting of customary and reasonable rates for its large group. Recent changes to the system go in the opposite direction--creating smaller groups of seniors.

Free Universal Heath coverage is not free. Everyone pays through taxes. Currently, here in the US, our health care system exists only for the benefit of the wealthy drug companies and insurance companies.

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2007/december/rn-s-statement-on-death-of-nataline-sarkisyan-cigna-should-have-listened-to-her-doctors-and-approved-the-transplant-a-week-ago.html

RN's Statement on Death of Nataline Sarkisyan: 'CIGNA Should Have Listened to Her Doctors And Approved the Transplant a Week Ago'
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died last night just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry.


On Dec. 11, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA’s denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”

“So what happened between December 11, when CIGNA denied the transplant, and December 20 when they approved? A huge outpouring of protest and CIGNA’s public humiliation. Why didn’t they just listen to the medical professionals at the bedside in the first place?” asked Geri Jenkins, RN, a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents who works in a transplant unit at the University of California San Diego Medical Center.

On Thursday, CIGNA was bombarded with phone calls to its offices across the country while a rally sponsored by CNA/NNOC, with the substantial help of the local Armenian community, drew 150 people to the Glendale offices of CIGNA – all of which produced the turnaround by CIGNA to finally reverse its prior denial of care.

CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called the final outcome "a horrific tragedy that demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our health care system today. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care."

"It is simply not possible to organize major protests every time a multi-billion corporation like CIGNA denies care that has been recommended by a physician," DeMoro said. “Having insurance is not the same as receiving needed care. We need a fundamental change in our healthcare system that takes control away from the insurance giants and places it where it belongs – in the hands of the medical professionals, the patients, and their families."

might be still alive NOW.

Or she might be just as dead after the insurance company paid out 100,000 thousand dollars. Citing examples of people who have died because Insurance companies didnt cover the cost is not a good stategy. There are millions of Americans who are saved every year because their Insurance companies did cover their treatments.

The liver transplant was HER only hope and she died because an insurance company disided it was TOO much money to save ONE person life.

Putting the monetary resources into a terminal patient, not to mention donated organs, which are in short supply is just wrong.

The family is planning to sue the insurance company, their attorney said Friday.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he also plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against CIGNA HealthCare for the death of Nataline Sarkisyan.

The insurer "maliciously killed her" because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said at a news conference outside his downtown Los Angeles office. He did not say when or in what court he would file the suit.

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA Healthcare on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant.

With HR 676 passed then EVERY american will be guarantee at least good medical treatment

Oh not again. Herbie is 35 years old for Pete's sake. If you have to dig back 30 years for a story it's not worth repeating.

Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.

He said speed was not the reason why she went to California.

Instead, MacEachern said the decision was made because the U.S. hospital was the best place to have it done due to the type of surgery required.

While it is rare for MPs to seek treatment outside Canada, MacEachern said Stronach was not lacking confidence in the system.

Stronach, who announced last April she would be leaving politics before the next election, paid for the surgery in the U.S., reports the Star.

"In fact, Belinda thinks very highly of the Canadian health-care system, and uses it when needed for herself and her children, as do all Canadians. As well, her family has clearly demonstrated that support," MacEachern told the Star.
Let's see...40 preems..and a government official...shall we see just how many are coming south?

Not only every American but any where between 12- 20 million illegal aliens and any one visiting the U.S., all thanks to a tax burden that will be carried mostly by the middle class.

By the same logic ... then why spend hundreds of thousands of dollar on a person who has stage 4 cancer or have them be seen by the best cancer doctors in the USA or be sent to a hospital thousands of miles away.

Sounds like a WASTE of money by that logic but in American the rich get the best and the poor get the scraps.

Nataline was diagnosed with leukemia at 14 and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother the day before Thanksgiving. She later developed a complication that caused her liver to fail. She was in a vegetative state for some time, her mother Hilda said.

Nataline was taken off life support at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center on Thursday, her mother said. Nataline died within the hour.

In a Dec. 11 letter to Cigna, four doctors had appealed to the insurer to reconsider. They said patients in similar situations who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65 percent.

One of Nataline's doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on her case. UCLA Medical Center staff refused to make her other doctors available for comment.

The case raised the question among at least one medical expert over whether a liver transplant is a viable option for a leukemia patient because of the immune-system-suppressing medication such patients must take to prevent organ rejection.

Such medication, while preserving the transplanted liver, could make the cancer worse.

Transplantation is not an option for leukemia patients because the immunosuppressant drugs "tend to increase the risk and growth of any tumors," said Dr. Stuart Knechtle, who heads the liver transplant program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was not commenting specifically on Nataline's case.

The procedure "would be futile," he said.

Geragos' attempt to get the district attorney to press murder and manslaughter charges against Cigna would be difficult to prove unless the defense can show that the company somehow intentionally caused Nataline's death, said Rebecca Lonergan, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

"My personal opinion is that this is a little bit of grandstanding," said Lonergan, a former Los Angeles County and federal prosecutor.

So are we supposed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 65 percent chance at keeping a terminally ill patient alive, but in a vegetative state for another six months?

What fricking kind of life is that?

At some point you just have to sign the DNR, hug your loved one and tell them it's OK to go. It's the hardest thing you ever have to do for someone you love, but if you really do love them you do it rather than making your child's death into a circus or a political statement.

I know what she had, and your logic makes zero sense. If you are saying that ductal carcinoma in situ can not become invasive, you need to learn your facts.
40 preemies was one province, not Canada wide.

http://www.shakopeenews.com/node/4425

December 21st, 2007 3:26 pm
Family challenged as baby awaits 7-organ transplant

By Ruth Anne Maddox / Shakopee Valley News

Babies are gifts from God but sometimes the pretty package is not as perfect on the inside as it looks on the outside.

Such is the case with Sidney Markie, a smiley 5-month-old from Shakopee who nearly died several times during the first nine weeks of her life as doctors worked to diagnose what was causing her little body to fail.

The good news is, they figured it out: Sidney has a rare genetic disorder called microvillus inclusion disease.

The bad news is, the 10-pound, 8-ounce little girl needs to have seven organs transplanted to hope for a viable future and physicians at Miami Children’s Hospital are among only a handful of doctors able to perform the surgery.

Sidney’s parents, Courtney Murray and Rick Markie, have been fighting for her life since before it was determined the multiorgan transplant was needed. Without the transplant, Sidney will not likely live past age 3.

The battle began on July 21 — just four days after Sidney was born. She was home from the hospital less than 48 hours when she started having difficulty breathing and felt cold to the touch. Murray said she took Sidney’s temperature and it was 91 degrees. She was sure it was just a faulty thermometer and sent Rick to the store for a new one. That one also showed 91 degrees. Luckily, a post-natal nursing visit was about to take place and, as soon as the nurse arrived, she called for an ambulance.

At the hospital, Sidney kept getting sicker and sicker. It wasn’t until the diagnosis was made that it was determined feeding Sidney is what was nearly killing her — with this disorder, the intestines can’t absorb any nutrients.

Illegals will NOT apply for UHC since then the government will know where they live and might deport them.
Already americans are paying for health care for illigels but now it is done in an ER which is much more expensive than any other place

Obviously you have not read HR676. As far as ER care for illegals I think that should stop as well for anything other than life threatening emergencies.