Friday, December 21, 2007

A victim

Not far from where I sit right now, there lived a teenaged girl named Natalee Sarkisian who needed a liver transplant. CIGNA, her insurer, refused to fund the procedure, saying that it was "experimental."

In fact, the first liver transplant was done in 1963. The procedure is now done at over 100 centers in the United States; one-year survival rates are nearly 90%.

Every Democrat running for president favors reforming the health insurance system. You may not like a given candidate, and you may not like his or her proposed reforms. (Hillary's plan is actually quite good.) Natalee is the reason why we are going to have to put aside primary-season dissension and come together to support the Democratic nominee, whoever that person may be.

The Democrat will be someone who wants to help other families avoid the pain that the Sarkisian family knows at this moment. The Republican will not care.

4 comments:

Ted Fleming said...

Word. Thanks for saying that.

Anonymous said...

R.I.P Natalee Sarkisyan, you are in God's hands.

BOYCOTT CIGNA!

Art

Anonymous said...

Excellent point, Joe.

Pretty much sums up what I've observed...only the Dems have ANY type of health care plan that comes close to some form of universal coverage.

The Repubs don't--not even Ron Paul. You'd think that this would be perfectly clear...but that's probably hoping for too much.

Anonymous said...

Americans want CARE not insurance. There is a tremendous difference. Insurance LIMITS care.
Americans do not want to pay CEO's salaries to be told to just die if something is wrong.
I vote to close Cigna.