Monday, February 22, 2010
Insurance companies working to pass Public Option.
Not really, but you are justified in being confused about what the health insurance companies are trying to do. After spending multi-millions more on lobbying this year than usual, their large rate hike requests along with declarations that they can do so whenever they wish would seem like a declaration of war on the public at large. Then they add special moments like this.
Ephram Nehme wanted to visit a doctor. Turns out he also needed to hire a lawyer.Despite his doctors recommendation, the Anthem Blue Cross death panel decided with little or no review that he could last long enough in California. We all know that health insurance companies hire none but the best doctors to staff their death panels. Who knows, maybe we will end up being grateful to the insurance companies for their greed.
His trial begins today in a Los Angeles courtroom, where Nehme is alleging that the nation's largest health insurer, WellPoint Inc., and its California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, automatically denied coverage for a liver transplant that his doctor said was medically necessary.
According to a statement issued on Nehme's behalf, Anthem never spoke to any of the doctors nor reviewed all of the medical files related to the case. It also states that a Blue Cross transplant nurse recommended the procedure before the claim was denied. As a result of the insurer's decision, Nehme paid over $205,000 out-of-pocket. "The transplant was necessary to save his life," says the release from Consumer Watchdog.
The case hinges not only on when Nehme needed the surgery, but where he got it. According to a report the Los Angeles Times ran in October, "Nehme's doctor told him he could die waiting for an organ in California and urged him to go to Indiana, where the waiting list was shorter. But Anthem Blue Cross said no. It would not pay for a transplant in Indiana."
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