Read this today in the Guardian (yes, I am a commie) and was quite offended by the sheer lack of human feeling expressed by a certain health insurance company, whose name may or may not be Cigna (it is). Essentially, this is the story.
Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, after undergoing treatment for leukemia, fell into a coma due to liver failure. Her doctors recommended her for an emergency liver transplant. A donor was found and she had all the right insurance, but her insurance company decided not to pay out for the liver transplant because her health plan "does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services."
Since when has a liver transplant been "experimental, investigational and unproven." Not having a liver is a damn sure way of not living any longer, and a liver transplant is a proven way of circumventing this problem. I mean, this is basic stuff that you can pick up just by watching any medical drama or fly-on-the-wall.
Perhaps the most distressing thing about this, apart from the 17 yr old losing her life for no reason other than for a health insurance company based in philadelphia could get a net income of $1.2 billion (though thats their 2006 finances, so I imagine its more than that for this year), is that the people who decided the fate for this young woman are no different from you or I (except probably far better paid). Like in any business, their job was to maximise profits for the company so it could expand and offer more health insurance to more people and save the world (or some such nonsense). These normal people have families to go home to (probably living in large houses), and children to talk to (who probably all have really big toys). You can probably imagine a conversation between the daddy/mommy and their son/daughter.
Son/Daughter: Daddy/Mommy, what did you do today.
Daddy/Mommy: Oh, well today I signed the death warrant on a 17 year old girl so that my company could post record-breaking profits. Yes thats right, a girl died so that I could get a promotion and make more money. Her case was borderline anyway, so I just made the argument not to pay out and now the board director's are congratulating me on saving them $75,000. Aren't you pleased little one?
Son/Daughter: Daddy/Mommy, but won't her parents be sad.
Daddy/Mommy: I don't think about that. If we thought about how our customers felt we wouldn't make any money at all. By treating everyone as numbers, objectifying them into figures on a page, we can make more money, expand the business and help more people to get health insurance so we save their lives (as long as they don't need a liver transplant, of course).
Son/Daughter: What's objectifying mean?
Daddy/Mommy: In this context, its the act of depersonalising a fellow human being; removing their dignity, their individuality, their personality and character. In other words, turning them into an object, devoid of any emotion, a hollow shell that can be ripped apart.
Son/Daughter: Isn't that what rapists do to their victims?
Daddy/Mommy: Yes! That's right darling. Well done!
Or perhaps not.
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2 comments:
ooh. an update.
It is indeed a pretty sucky set of affairs, but I shouldn't think that the american insurance business is by any means unique in their treatment of some people. If you decide to judge on anecdotal evidence you can probably argue that everything everywhere is shit, because there's always someone who's been fucked over. I'm sure hundreds of similar cases can be held up in every healthcare system, nationalised or otherwise.
I think the real thing to be getting outraged about isn't cases like that, shitty though they are, but the millions of similar cases where the patient never even got the slightest opportunity of a liver transplant, perhaps even of a diagnosis of leukaemia - whether through being born in the wrong country, or just on the wrong side of detroit.
I like the parent/child conversation - Although I think perhaps you let didacticism get the better of natural dialogue, just a teensy weensy bit.
Have you seen Michael Moore's sicko? I have also heard on radio 4 that America spends more on health (via insurance companies) per capita than any other country in the world. An American was badly injured in the Bali bombings; burns to 80% of his body. The Aussies phoned up the Yanks and asked what they should do, the yanks asked if he had a credit card...the Aussies pointed out that as he had just been involved in a bombing his credit card, along with his clothes and a fair amount of his skin....um...80% of it, was gone. The Americans said "well, there's nothing we can do". He didn't die because Australians have a scrap of humanity.....not to say that Americans as people don't...but you know...the system!
I don't think it is only anecdotal evidence which points to the American health care system being shite. (re-ben's comment).
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