Seventeen year old Nataline Sarkisyan dies after insurance company denies liver transplant.?

I'm furious about this! I've looked all over the web and besides calling the insurance company in protest, I don't what I could do to make sure nothing like this happens in our country again. This girl survived two bouts of cancer and got a bone marrow transplant from her brother. There were complications and her liver failed. Her doctors said she needed a transplant and CIGNA would not approve it and she died.

Is there something that can be done to prevent this is the future? Would writing letters to congress or a petition make something happen?

I am a medical biller for a living so I do know quite a bit about insurance. The transplant was denied as "experimental" according to a news story I read. That is very typical. Thye do it to cancer patients all the time and I fight medical insurance companies every day. It's what I do for a living. The longer I'm in this business, the more often I see cases in which the insurance companies see themselves as more qualified than the physicians to determine what course of treatment to take. THEY ARE NOT DOCTORS!

Insurance companies are evil.
They put a monetary value on human life, pain and suffering.
Last time there were men of this caliber in the US were the slave traders in the South.
They hide behind paperwork and employees that are "just enforcing the company policy"
It is a sad state our country has fallen into when these leeches have control over the lives of so many.

The insurance company will probably be sued and end up paying out a byunch to the family, then they will turn around and raise rates for every one else.

cheers

VOTE DEMOCRATIC, unless you can find a Republican who favors Universal Health Care.

She died for profit margins. That's all. The Christian Republican GREED machine knows no decency.

You are not alone. I am a member of hepatitis C support group and we were fuming over this this morning in the support chat.. the saddest part about this story is that they had a liver available for the transplant and cigna denied her a chance at life. But illegal immigrants can flood our ER rooms and get treated and the hospitals absorbs the cost and passes it onto us. The hospital could have easily written of the loss of this liver transplant, just as easy as they do for others, I am so mad about this story I could spit. Even my own HMO wouldn't pay for my Hep C treatments, but I thank the lord everyday for Roche Patient Assitance program who gave me the drugs to battle the HEP C after my HMO and the VA turned up their nose at me and refused to give treatment .. One last note.. my doctor just called me 2 days ago with my 6 month post treatment labs.. against all odd because I had Gentotype 1a I am clear of the virus , but the insurance companies wouldn't help me

The truth was IMO that she was almost certainly going to die anyway - the insurance company decided she was not a good candidate for transplant and not to throw good money after bad. There is a time and place to say enough is enough....man am I gonna get flamed for this, but that what I think.
You wanna do something about it? Vote democrat have them double your taxes to pay for socialized medicine.

Sad to say but even if the company is sued, they won't lose or have to pay a dime in a settlement.

There are millions of people like Nataline who live and die everyday by the hand of health insurance companies. I am hoping that the public is catching on courtesy of Michael Moore and "Sicko."

Try Congress, but I think the '08 election is the best opportunity to start working towards fixing this mess. Sorry about your friend, remember, if her story can help fix this system, then at least some good will have come of it.

Now don't get mad at me, but CIGNA didn't deny the transplant. They declined to pay for it. The hospital and doctors who wouldn't do it without getting paid are just as guilty as the insurance company who viewed it as a bad risk.

It's a terrible thing that the level of health care you get is based on your ability to pay for it. I don't know if socialized medicine is the answer or not, but this doesn't work.

The same thing happens if you're accused of a crime. If you can pay for a good lawyer, you have a chance of getting off...whether you're guilty or not. If you get an overworked, underpaid court appointed legal aid type lawyer, you better start praying for a miracle. They do their best, but they have too many cases to work on, and too little resources.

Money still talks.

The fact is people die all the time, at all ages. She was probably a bad risk - it's not worth doing expensive surgery on someone who isn't going to live long anyway. Better to use the money on someone with a better chance of survival.

The fact is, advanced medical treatments DO cost money, and there isn't enough money to save everyone on the planet. Thousands die in Africa through lack of a few dollars for basic medicine and hydration - it's a shame, but we can't save everyone.

If you look at Yahoo's homepage, they have a video showing Nataline's family protesting CIGNA's decision (right in front of their headquarters). This worked, CIGNA did cave into the family's decision, at the last minute, right before she died. Literally 1 day could have made a difference.

she had leaukemia and had she gotten the transplant she still had a 65% chance of death inside of 6 months and her quality of life during thoses 6 months would have been horrendous.

the problem wasnt the insurance company it was the doctors and hospital that wouldnt do the operation unless they got paid up front.

the problem with the american healthcare system is the hospitals and doctors who use it as legalized extortion.pay us first to save your life or you die!!!


i hope the family loses any suit they bring against the insurance company but i hope they win any suit against the surgeons and hospitals

Well what we (the public) need to do is make a huge deal out of this... Because it really is.. She was fully covered by the company.. I don't understand how a liver transplant is "experimental".. especially because the doctors knew there was no chance of survival without it. There have been protests against the company.. one i think was spiraled by Mark Kirakos.. But it needs to receive a lot more attention.. I think a petition would be a great idea... Would it change anything in terms of legislation? No... But if we make a big enough deal out of it, other insurance companies may be more careful with situations like these...

I'm Armenian, so I fallowed the story from the beginning.. It really saddened me to hear that she'd passed