Posted on 09/14/2009 4:43:37 AM PDT by cpurick
Cigna HealthCare, Nataline's family insurer, initially refused to pay for a liver transplant on grounds that it would not save Nataline in her grave condition. But the family took the case to the media and, after enlisting the support of a powerful nurses' lobby, persuaded Cigna to consent to the procedure. It was a public relations disaster for the company.
Unfortunately, by this point Nataline's condition had deteriorated even further, and the family terminated life support the same day Cigna acquiesced.
The left grabbed onto this tragedy from the beginning as a case study against private, "for-profit" health insurance. John Edwards campaigned on the story, and today there are over 1000 matches when you Google "Sarkisyan" and "death panel." The standard thesis is that Cigna allowed Nataline to die after concluding that she couldn't be saved, and therefore private-sector insurance is really no better than the bureaucratic rationing of a government option.
But is it? The American Enterprise Institute issued a point paper refuting John Edwards' depiction of Nataline Sarkisyan's death...
(Excerpt) Read more at whoisjohngalt.com ...
All too true, but at least at the moment we have a choice of death panels! Beats the hell out of Obama’s “single death panel” system staffed by government bureaucrats!
At least there is the option/threat of a law suit and publicity against a private health insurer.
I don’t think you will have that right in regard to Gov’t health care.
The way you will get your insurance will be from a government run exchange. You will be forced to buy it if you have any reportable income and checked by the “new” IRS with expanded powers. Only a few of the largest insurance companies will be able to meet the government requirements. The plans will all be “manged care”. Most large corporations will discontinue offering health benefits as the tax will cost them less. The coverage will be like a giant nationwide HMO. The government will set the gatekeeping policies of who gets what care. This will morph over time in to a totally government run health system with the insurance companies as administrative services providers with union employees. Care will be dispensed on a “cost” basis as opposed to a “need” basis. Welcome to the Brave New World all the kooks have been warning of.
There are only so many dollars. If hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on a liver transplant for terminal case A then there aren’t those hundreds of thousands to spend on non-terminal cases B, C, D, E, F, G.........
People lose sight of a simple fact. There isn’t the money to give unlimited care. And anyone who thinks that govt decision making is going to be smarter than the insurance companies’ is living in a dreamworld.
And any appeal to the government death panel means only that it will be reviewed by another death panel.
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