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Hey folks,

Here is even more reasons that those who feel Universal Healthcare is so great, to think about it. This is from the AP - Calif. family blames HMO in girl's death By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

The family of a 17-year-old leukemia patient blamed Cigna Corp. on Friday for her death, saying the health insurance giant's initial refusal to pay for a liver transplant contributed to her death.

You think?

"They took my daughter away from me," said Nataline Sarkisyan's father, Krikor, with tears in his eyes at a news conference at his lawyer's office.

The Philadelphia-based insurer had initially refused to pay for the procedure, saying it was experimental. The company reversed the decision Thursday as about 150 nurses and community members rallied outside of its office in Glendale in suburban Los Angeles. Nataline died just hours later.

They did not only say it was experimental, they said that she would most likely not be helped by it. These were not Doctors that made this decision. It was those in the finantal offices.

The insurer "maliciously killed" Nataline because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, said family attorney Mark Geragos. He did not say when or in what court he would file the civil lawsuit.

Geragos also said he would ask the district attorney's office to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna, an allegation that one legal expert described as difficult to prove and "a little bit of grandstanding."

Why not, if they agreed to pay for it, she may have been saved. Greed killed her.

A district attorney's office spokeswoman declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so until Geragos submits evidence supporting his request.

The family's "loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them," Cigna said in a news release Friday. "We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care and love that are being expressed for Nataline's family help them at this time."

Won't bring her back, now will it?

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.

Should say, COULD have been. There is evidence to the contrary.

So they said no, we will not pay for it. She died right after they changed their mind. Too little, too late. So now take this case and multiply it by thousands and possibly MILLIONS. Let's say we are stupid enough to elect a Socialist to be President. Let's say they create and inact Universal Healthcare. Now you get sick. It will not, just like this case, be the Doctors that are treating you, to decide what treatment you get, or DON'T get. It will be the government. Do you REALLY want that?

Let's look at welfare. If you happen to be a minority, or an Illegal, you are taken care of. What if you are White? Not so much. Let's look at failures in just about ANY government run programs. So now they control who, when, how, and why, YOU get medical care. Do you REALLY think this will be any different?

All you have to do, as I have said many times, is look at Universal Healthcare ANYWHERE it is active. It does not work. Why do you think you have all these people coming HERE to get Healthcare?

What if you could come up with enough money to get a major operation done by the best Doctors on the face of the planet? Under a government run, Universal Healthcare, you couldn't do it with ANY amount of money. THEY will tell you when, where, why, and how. Where are you going to go now? Wherever they tell you.

You think HMOs are money hungry? They make bad decisions? Wait until the government get's involved.
Peter