Cigna should be very happy with themselves now. The girl's death has saved the insurance company a bundle, since they don't now have to do the liver transplant!

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This is proof positive that solution to our Health Care crisis is NOT for Profit Insurance . They have as their PRIMARY purpose the well being of their shareholders and NOT their customers .
As is rarely pointed out to the Likes of Rudy Guilliani and John McCain THEY could NOT get
Private Insurance due to their history of cancer . Just once I would like to see THAT FACT brought up .

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This situation would not be an issue under the universal, single-payer, NOT-FOR-PROFIT health care plan, HR 676, proposed by Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich.

But this article seems to be missing one key point.

"Attorney Mark Geragos said he plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare in the case. The insurer "maliciously killed her" because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said."

Is the insurer the problem here, or the hospital, which apparently refused to perform the operation until it could be guaranteed payment? Why didn't the hospital do the transplant, and then argue with the insurance company afterwards over who would pay the bill?

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But, unfortunately, if you need emergency care or care like this teenager needed then you are screwed even if you have health insurance in the United Snakes!

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This is why we need to get insurance companies OUT of health care. And we need to separate Medicaid from welfare, and make it easier to get. Several years ago a friend of my sister's applied for disability because she had developed heart disease. She needed a bypass. She was given the run around for more than 6 months before she was finally approved. The letter came one day after she had a massive heart attack and died. I waited nearly a year and had to be hospitalized and recovering from surgery before being approved. None of my medical bills were covered and last year, 3 days before Christmas I had to go to court because one of the doctors was suing me. And I've got to say that I am totally sick of hearing these holier than thou, God fearing paragons of virtue in congress, mostly in the Republican party saying that because I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, living my life on the sweat of others, like the Bush sons that my life should be forfeited as worthless.

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There is no reason not to do it - if we had it now this girl(and countless people like her) would still be alive.

It's a disgrace we have lagged behind the rest of the civilized nations in getting this done.

Getting quality health care should not depend on how much money you might or might not have.

Funding? Just rollback the tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy and quit throwing away billions on an unnecessary war we were lied into.

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The choice is this: Provide proper care to thousands or deny the claims of thousands so the CEO and his closest cronies can pocket each year enough money to provide themeselves and their next ten generations lives of unbelievable splendor. Let'm die.

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pass law prohibiting CIGNA from denying this girl's 'right to life' as they did in Terri Shiavo case?

amerikans are damn effing stupid. If you don't believe me just look at the popularity of Huckabee!

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Sounds to me like her leukemia killed her. Regardless of the payment system, we cannot act as though there are unlimited resources for any and all treatments. With all due respect to the family here, choices like this unavoidable, no matter who is paying.

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do you think any expense would have been spared, no matter how slim the chance of success? no wonder they think our health care system is great.

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All the people against Universal Coverage wear her blood on their hands. Especially the insurance companies and those in charge of making decisions to save them money....Although I've made lots of money from their stocks, I'm just an opportunist chasing the American dream,,,uno,,,get RICH!!!

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equation is the case of Dr. Bill McGuire, the former CEO of United Health Care. The following excerpt is from the Associated Press.
JOSHUA FREED,Associated Press
Posted: 2007-12-07 00:18:55
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Getting former CEO William McGuire to give back hundreds of millions of dollars in tainted stock options cures one of UnitedHealth's biggest headaches from its backdating scandal. But there are others.

McGuire agreed to a settlement the Securities and Exchange Commission valued at $468 million, including giving back $320 million in stock options. He had already agreed to reprice some stock options, reducing their value by another $200 million.

That and a $7 million civil penalty was enough to get the SEC to settle with him. But the SEC said its investigation of the company is continuing, and a review by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is also outstanding.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. has been trying to put the matter behind it, adopting numerous governance reforms last year and adding independent directors. Current CEO Stephen Hemsley has apologized for the scandal and agreed last year to reprice or give back $189 million worth of stock options to remove the possibility that he benefited from backdating.

McGuire ran UnitedHealth for 15 years, turning a regional insurer into what is now the nation's second-largest managed care company. Like many other companies in the 1990s, UnitedHealth rewarded its chairman and CEO with options giving him the right to buy UnitedHealth shares at a fixed price. The value of those options skyrocketed along with the company's share price. McGuire's unexercised options were worth more than $1.75 billion at the end of 2005.

McGuire was allowed to choose the dates for his option awards. The crux of the backdating accusation is that, to boost the options' value, he picked a date in the past when the share price was lower and signed papers as if he was granted the options on that earlier date. That hands the recipient an instant profit but needs to be disclosed to avoid accounting - and, potentially, legal - headaches.

The settlement announced Thursday resolves a lawsuit brought by shareholders on behalf of the company, as well as a civil complaint by the SEC. The SEC said McGuire did not admit or deny guilt.

The settlement includes a $7 million civil penalty for the SEC and reimbursement to the Minnetonka-based insurer for all incentive- and equity-based compensation he received from 2003 through 2006, the SEC said.

The agency said it was the largest penalty assessed against a person in an options backdating case. The settlement "reflects the magnitude and scope of Dr. McGuire's misconduct," Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said in a statement. End AP Excerpt...................
Other board members also recieved back dated stock options worth over $4 billion. How many people could have had excellent care for just the amount of money the top executives and board members were given? How many people had to be denied care by United Health?

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Death Penalty for insurance decision makers...Isn't it time for Universal Healthcare???...But one letter of the alphabet protects these evil decision makers; Did you know not having this transplant 'could've' killed her? Or did you know it 'would've' killed her. In the eyes of the law, a big difference.

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