The Health Insurance Victims Project

I’m at the end of my rope. What CIGNA is doing to me is—well, it’s outrageous.
I have a brain tumor. Doctors are ready to help me. But CIGNA has been blocking me from getting testing and treatment for two years, while almost doubling my premiums. 

Then, this week was the kicker. CIGNA’s pharmacy called to say that the co-pay on the medicine that helps control my debilitating head pain is skyrocketing from $10 to $1,115. That’s not a typo. They’re making me pay one hundred times what I’m paying now, in addition to my $753/month premium.
I can’t afford that. So when the pain comes, I won’t have any defense. I’ll spend hours in the fetal position, out of my mind with pain.
When my story went public a couple of weeks ago—with the help of over 100,000 MoveOn members—CIGNA said they would pay for a test I’d been asking for at Cleveland Clinic. It was a step in the right direction. But after two years of denials, and with a long course of treatment ahead of me, I knew better than to just take them at their word.
So I asked questions. But they wouldn’t offer any explanation for why they denied my coverage for so long, or any assurance that they had changed their procedures so I wouldn’t face the same unjust denials again. And I began to wonder if they were more interested in just sweeping my story under the rug than actually helping me.
When I got this latest news from CIGNA’s pharmacy on Tuesday, I kept asking myself, is this a mistake? Or is this happening because I went public with my case? Are other CIGNA customers receiving the same phone calls?
I used to give CIGNA the benefit of the doubt, but after years of unexplained denials, I’ve had enough. So I’m asking for your help again. For myself, and for everyone else who is suffering, I am asking CIGNA for answers.
And I think it would help if thousands of people like you were to join me in demanding them. I’m writing them a short letter with a simple question: Why? Can you add your name to my letter?
http://pol.moveon.org/dawn/?id=17404-7277276-8BGnatx&t=1
Here’s what I’ve written to Dr. Jeffrey Kang, CIGNA’s Chief Medical Officer:
As you probably know, your company has denied me needed care for two years while I suffer from a debilitating but treatable brain tumor. I pay my $753.47 premiums. I follow the proper procedures. But CIGNA refuses to give me the care I need.
Instead, you keep increasing my prices. First my premiums rose by hundreds of dollars, and now my prescription costs are going up by more than 10,000%.
What makes you think you can treat sick people this way? When will you stop doing this to me and the thousands of people like me who are suffering? And if you solve this latest problem, how do I know you won’t do this to me again next week—that you’re actually changing your ways and not just trying to make your PR problem disappear?
Please answer these questions. I need to know, for the sake of my health and my life. Many others have signed this letter too, to support me and make sure I get answers.
Respectfully, 
Dawn Smith

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(CIGNA is ready to kill another American. This was just sent to members of MoveOn.org. CIGNA is denying Dawn Smith’s health insurance claim for treatment of her brain tumor.  CIGNA, you’ll remember, also killed Nataline Sarkisyan. — bh)

Dawn is a few years younger than me.  She lives in Atlanta.  She’s an aspiring playwright.  And four years ago, she was diagnosed with a rare, but treatable brain tumor.

Dawn’s doctors are ready to treat the tumor, but they can’t.  CIGNA, her insurer, refuses to pay for the care she needs because the only hospitals qualified to treat her are out-of-network.  And after years of fighting, Dawn just received her final denial letter.
For me, the scariest thing about Dawn’s story is that it could happen to any of us—to a friend of mine, or someone in my family.  After all, Dawn has insurance. But as long as private insurers are the only game in town, they’ll continue to have the power to deny Americans the care they need.
Dawn is fighting back. And while CIGNA may be able to ignore Dawn, they won’t be able to ignore millions of us standing together with her.  I’m joining Dawn’s fight to shine a light on Big Insurance’s abusive tactics, get Dawn the care she needs, and make sure they don’t do this to anyone ever again.   Will you join me by signing a statement of support? Clicking below will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/dawnsmith/o.pl?id=17257-7277276-nE2eMWx&t=3
The statement says, “I stand with Dawn Smith.  CIGNA must provide the treatment she needs and stop rejecting legitimate care for all the others who are suffering.”
Unfortunately, Dawn’s story isn’t unique—she’s one of the millions of Americans who are suffering—but what she’s doing about her situation is.  Instead of suffering in silence, she’s sharing her painful, powerful story so that, as she says, “no one else has to go through what I have.”
I’ve been really moved by Dawn’s strength, given everything she’s going through. She has terrible pain and sudden seizures that can knock her off her feet.  She’s had to move back in with her mom so she can have constant care. But through all that, she’s kept her spirits up.
The heart-breaking part is that her condition is treatable.  But CIGNA’s refusal to treat her has brought her to “the end of my rope,” as she puts it.  CIGNA gladly accepts Dawn’s premium payments, but when she needed care, they refused to pay for it, coming up with new reasons as they went.
Dawn’s story is a symptom of a much bigger problem.  But if we all rally behind her, we can help not just her, but everyone else who’s suffering under our broken system, too.  Together, we have the power to make Dawn’s story different, and in the process, to remind Congress and the American people why we so desperately need health care reform.
I’m standing with Dawn. Will you join me? Clicking below will add your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/dawnsmith/o.pl?id=17257-7277276-nE2eMWx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Marika, Daniel, Kat, and the rest of the team

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A study done at Harvard estimates nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002.

 
The new study, “Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,” appears in today’s [Thursday's] online edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
The Harvard-based researchers found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.

 
Lead author Dr. Andrew Wilper, who worked at Harvard Medical School when the study was done and who now teaches at the University of Washington Medical School, said, “The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured, even after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors and baseline health. We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease – but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications.”

 
The study, which analyzed data from national surveys carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), assessed death rates after taking education, income and many other factors including smoking, drinking and obesity into account. It estimated that lack of health insurance causes 44,789 excess deaths annually.

 
Previous estimates from the IOM and others had put that figure near 18,000. The methods used in the current study were similar to those employed by the IOM in 2002, which in turn were based on a pioneering 1993 study of health insurance and mortality.

 
Deaths associated with lack of health insurance now exceed those caused by many common killers such as kidney disease.

 
An increase in the number of uninsured and an eroding medical safety net for the disadvantaged likely explain the substantial increase in the number of deaths associated with lack of insurance. The uninsured are more likely to go without needed care.

 
Another factor contributing to the widening gap in the risk of death between those who have insurance and those who don’t is the improved quality of care for those who can get it.

 
The research, carried out at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, analyzed U.S. adults under age 65 who participated in the annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) between 1986 and 1994. Respondents first answered detailed questions about their socioeconomic status and health and were then examined by physicians. The CDC tracked study participants to see who died by 2000.

 
The study found a 40 percent increased risk of death among the uninsured. As expected, death rates were also higher for males (37 percent increase), current or former smokers (102 percent and 42 percent increases), people who said that their health was fair or poor (126 percent increase), and those that examining physicians said were in fair or poor health (222 percent increase).

 
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, study co-author, professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician in Cambridge, Mass., noted: “Historically, every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some form of nonprofit national health insurance. Our failure to do so means that all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 pay with their lives.”

 
Dr. David Himmelstein, study co-author and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, remarked, “The Institute of Medicine, using older studies, estimated that one American dies every 30 minutes from lack of health insurance. Even this grim figure is an underestimate – now one dies every 12 minutes.”

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CIGNA Healthcare killed Nataline Sarkisyan in 2007 by denying her a liver transplant. She was 17 years old.

Nataline Sarkisyan’s father made desperate public pleas for CIGNA, her insurance provider, to approve the operation. After more than 100 protestors demonstrated in her family’s favor, the company agreed to pay for the procedure. But it was too late, and Nataline died hours after CIGNA conceded.

According to Emory Healthcare, a liver transplant costs between $100,000 and $400,000. In the third quarter of 2007, CIGNA reported a profit of $298 million and a gross revenue of $4.14 billion. In that same year, CIGNA’s PAC spent about $375,000 during the election cycle, of which about 62% went to Republican candidates.

CIGNA’s CEO H. Edward Hanway, has enjoyed an average annual income of $15.26 million per year.

Let’s never forget Nataline and the others like her who health insurance companies have killed.

More on Nataline Sarkisyan and CIGNA: 

Nataline’s story in The Guardian.

Nataline’s family sues CIGNA.

CIGNA CEO H. Edward Hanway’s compensation.

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