Big Insurance Met Its Match When It Turned Down a Top Trial Lawyer's Request for Cancer Treatment

[MissMillie]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/big-insurance-met-its-match-when-it-turned-down-a-top-trial-lawyer-s-request-for-cancer-treatment/ar-AA1jwlmo?ocid=hpmsn&pc=U483&cvid=69935441c2aa4a36b35c16b290f2d20b&ei=54

Big Insurance Met Its Match When It Turned Down a Top Trial Lawyer’s Request for Cancer Treatment

...Fuller told Salim that he might have to use a cheaper form of radiation that is less precise. Normally outgoing and optimistic, Salim felt his chest tighten as Fuller described the possible side effects of that other type of treatment. Because there were many critical organs near Salim’s tumor, the damage could be severe, causing loss of hearing, diminished sense of taste and smell, and brain impairment, like memory loss.

At that point, Salim seemed in danger of joining millions of other Americans denied payment for medical treatment. These patients often settle for outdated, riskier procedures or simply forgo care.

But Salim was no ordinary patient. He was, in fact, an aggressive litigator who had been named one of the 100 best trial lawyers in America. In a long career working from Natchitoches, Louisiana, a tiny city in the Creole heartland, he had helped extract settlements worth hundreds of millions of dollars from massive corporations that had harmed consumers with unsafe products, including pelvic mesh and the pain reliever Vioxx....

It is long past the time to remove the insurance companies from the health care industry. (And believe it or not, I mean Medicare too.)

Everyone is entitled to health care. It is a human right.

And the best outcomes should not be reserved for those who can afford to pay for them.

I'm fairly convinced that health care costs are high BECAUSE of health insurance.

[Blues Heron]

1. health insurance drives up costs by agreeing to pay the exhorbitant prices charged by the hospitals and big pharma

They take advantage of the nature of insurance - that the group pays. They are true and total parasites.

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. When I get my monthly Medicare Advantage

statements I see what my ins co was charged and what they actually paid. It is always a pittance.

[Lovie777]

2. It's about greed........................

screw the health of people.

[TeamProg]

4. Health care for profit is the problem. nt

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Bad or outdated treatments lead to more treatments and more money

The longer you keep treating a patient, the more money you make. We want you to be well. Just not so well that you no longer need treatment.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. Health insurance is about extracting wealth

From sick people to give to filthy-rich people. Capitalism at its finest. The corporations want your money but don't want to provide the services you pay for. It's a model developed and refined by Nixon.

The health insurance corporation will lie, cheat and steal to get that money you pay, for services, to their filthy-rich owners.

In this case they used antiquated irrelevant medical data to keep from paying probably less than $30,000. That's the difference between the cost they would cover, a possibly dangerous and useless procedure, and the cost of a medically successful procedure.

The profit motive is a terrible system to build a society on.

[skydive forever]

7. Remember death panels

We were all convinced that Obamacare was going to bring about death panels. Turns out, those panels were here all along.

[sop]

8. Often medical providers won't even tell patients about more effective (and expensive) treatments

when they are not covered by their insurance. Most patients don't know enough to make informed decisions about treatment options, and doctors won't advise them of these (possibly more effective, and more expensive) options if their insurance won't cover it.

[MissMillie]

14. When Al needed cataract surgery, they showed us a vid on the laser procedure

It's the gold standard.

Then we were told he wasn't a candidate because he's on Medicare.

Why shouldn't Medicare patients be entitled to "the gold standard?"

[SouthernDem4ever]

9. Agree that costs are high because of the insurance companies

and don't leave out their lobbyists.

[Lonestarblue]

10. With the exception of original Medicare, our whole healthcare system is based on profits.

The goal of insurers is not to provide healthcare but to deny it whenever possible to create more money for wealthy shareholders and CEO bonuses. According to Business Insider, the top 10% of the wealthy own 89% of all household stocks. So while those in 401k and other investment funds may benefit from dividends or stock price increases, their gains are minuscule compared with what the wealthy gain.

I have long been convinced that we would actually save money by transitioning to universal healthcare and removing the insurance executives from making our medical decisions for us. For example, France is reputed to have one of the best healthcare systems in the world. In 2022, their per capita expenditure for healthcare was $6,516.6. In the US, ours was $12,555.3 for a system that doesn’t even allow millions of people to have access to healthcare.

[happy feet]

11. Thanks for posting

I finally won on appeal (after two claim denials) for my dental insurance. Helpful to see a roadmap in case they would have denied my appeal.

[flying_wahini]

12. Medical insurance is the biggest scam in town.

When you can pay the same cash ans the deductible and get the same care, it’s a scam.

This includes insurance for eyes and teeth, too.

[druidity33]

13. ALL insurance companies do this...

it's not just health insurance.

[MissMillie]

15. I'm aware

It's just that I believe health care is a right... and the best health care shouldn't be reserved for the wealthy.