Meet the real death panels
Allison Kilkenny
Unreported
trueslant.com
In anticipation of President Obama’s speech tonight before a joint session of Congress, Sarah Palin has resurrected the “death panels” myth. Writing in the Wall Street Journal (one of the last forums willing to spread her misinformed hate other than Facebook,) Palin asks, “is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their healthcare by—dare I say it—death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans.”
Here, Palin confuses “rang true” for “rang the bell of terrified dread.” Though it’s a blatant lie, hearing the term “death panels” is scary enough to concern Republicans, especially old Republicans.
There has been much speculation over what Obama will say tonight in his speech, or what he should say, or what he definitely should not say. Many want him to fight for the public option by clearly defining what it means, and finally squashing the rumors of “death panels” for all time.
I would suggest Obama not run from the term “death panels” because it has, unfortunately, firmly joined the popular vernacular. Instead, I hope he does talk about death panels, namely what the nation’s largest group of nurses calls California’s “real death panels” where private insurers deny 21% of filed claims.
More than one of every five requests for medical claims for insured patients, even when recommended by a patient’s physician, are rejected by California’s largest private insurers, according to data released by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
In the first six months of 2009, PacifiCare denied 40 percent of all California claims, while Cigna, which gained notoriety two years ago for denying a liver transplant to 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan and then reversing the decision, tragically too late to save her life, was still rejecting one-third of all claims for the first half of 2009.
Wendell Potter, the healthcare executive turned whistleblower, was the man in charge of Cigna’s public relations during the Sarkisyan controversy. Potter credits the outcry from Sarkisyan’s family, protesters, and nurses for Cigna’s reversal that ultimately came too late to save her life. “The Sarkisyan family reached out to the media, to the California Nurses Associations and others to help them put pressure on Cigna to try to get the company to reverse its decision. Ultimately, the company did,” Potter says.
Sadly, there are many of these stories. “Every claim that is denied represents a real patient enduring pain and suffering. Every denial has real, sometimes fatal consequences,” says Deborah Burger, RN, CNA/NNOC co-president.
PacifiCare denied a special procedure for treatment of bone cancer for 17-year-old Nick Colombo. As during the Sarkisyan scandal, family and friends, CNA/NNOC, and netroots activists organized protests, and PacifiCare reversed its decision. But once again, the reversal came too late for Nick, who ultimately died. “This was his last effort and the procedure had worked before with people in Nick’s situation,” said his older brother Ricky. But what didn’t work for Nick was the private insurance industry, our current system of class-based death panels. The rich can afford excellent medical care, while the poor majority fight for life-saving medical procedures.
The CNA/NNOC reports that in the first half of 2009 California Blues and Kaiser Permanente both rejected 28 percent of their claims. By rejecting these kinds of life-saving procedures and other claims, the top 18 insurance giants raked in $15.9 billion last year. Quite simply: the denial of claims is a huge boon to the private insurance industry, which literally profits from death.
No longer is the private insurance industry in the business of protecting life. They have become the real death panels, and Obama should stress that in tonight’s speech. Obama and his team have been working hard to transition the national conversation from one about healthcare to health insurance. The Democrats don’t want citizens to worry that their doctors and hospitals will be run by the state, and an easy way to hammer this message home is to highlight the gross failures of the private insurance giants. |
