Nurses, Patients March on CIGNA Forum to Protest Insurance Industry Abuse of Patients

New President-Elect of American Medical Association, Who is Also an Insurance Corporate Executive, to Address CIGNA
 
The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association (NNOC/CNA), which represents the 1,800 RNs working in the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, will lead a nurses’ and patients’ march this Wednesday, Jan. 16 on a meeting of key CIGNA stakeholders being addressed by Dr. Nancy Nielsen, the new President-elect of the American Medical Association.  

CIGNA is one of the merciless insurance giants whose need for ever-greater profits is bankrupting our system of healthcare—while Nielsen is herself an insurance executive with Independent Health Corporation.

WHAT:     Nurses, Patient March on CIGNA to Protest Patient Abuse
WHEN:     Wednesday January 16th, 4 pm
WHERE:   Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 East Wacker Drive

Although CIGNA bills the event as a “Key Stakeholder’s Forum for Chicago,” it is significant that neither patients nor patient advocates are invited—which is why and how tragedies such as the recent death of Nataline Sarkisyan occur.  Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old girl in Glendale, California died last month, following a delay by CIGNA in approving her liver transplant.

CIGNA’s legal responsibility to maximize shareholder profits, rather than patient health, means they should have no role in the delivery of patient care, nurses charge.  Instead the U.S. should adopt the kind of universal, non-profit, single-payer health coverage that is succeeding in nearly every other industrialized democracy. 

“We will hold CIGNA accountable not just for the death of Nataline Sarkisyan, but also for the untold number of patients who have been in anguish, sickened, and died because their insurance companies delayed and denied care,” said Zenei Cortez, RN, President of the National Nurses Organizing Committee.  “We will never improve our healthcare system so long as it is at the mercy of insurance corporations.  It’s long past time to replace the insurers with a guaranteed healthcare, single-payer solution.”

BACKGROUND on Sarkisyan, Strezo Cases
On December 20, 2007, Nataline Sarkisyan died after a long battle against leukemia. Her tragic case has gained national attention because a potentially life-saving liver transplant was initially denied by her family’s insurer—CIGNA.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association helped organize community protests and generate demands that CIGNA reverse their denial. While these efforts forced CIGNA to approve Nataline’s transplant, their decision came too late, and she died just hours after her family finally received approval.

Nataline’s case is not an isolated instance.  These kind of insurer horror stories happen every day in America and Illinois.

Just last month newspapers reported that UniCare was refusing to pay for chemotherapy for Cyril Strezo, a Frankfort, Illinois patient with esophageal and liver cancers. The intervention of State’s Attorney Lisa Madigan and State Representative Mary Flowers forced UniCare reverse its decision and agree to pay for the treatments - which otherwise would have cost the Strezos $3000 per week.

Based on these two cases State Representative Mary Flowers has introduced a bill (HB 4223) that would strengthen Illinois patients’ rights to appeal the denial of benefits by health insurers. While strengthening patients’ appeal rights is a critical stop-gap measure, these two cases make clear that health insurers - like CIGNA and UniCare - do not deserve to be in the healthcare business.