Stacie Ritter speaks at "Big Insurance: Sick of It!" rally

Stacie Ritter tells the heartbreaking tale of how CIGNA denied needed cancer treatment for her twin daughters Hannah and Madeline, and how she fears what the future holds if meaningful health care reform fails.

Shot at the "Big Insurance: Sick of It!" rally and march on CIGNA in Philadelphia on September 22, 2009.

This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• cigna
• moveon
• health
• care
• healthcare
• cancer
• insurance
• vultures
• rally
• philadelphia
• stacieritter

[fctchk]

If Ritters case were the exception we might consider buying your specious legalistic song and dance, however, denying payment/cherry picking customers is THE business model of the industry.

Any issues with being reached into your pocket for almost a $trillion now for failed nation building (after we destroyed them) adventures overseas?

[NShutterbug]

Tell me where in the constitution it states that if somebody pays for a service it can be denied. That is fraud. You miss the point.

[Hilda07S]

I am sick of our health care system. We need to make changes, insurance companies deny care for profit. Cigna or any other insurance company can't win, we need to fight back.

[EasyEs]

You simply don't understand business. Your states each have different regulatory structures, that big companies must spend loads of money adhering to. How much money would it take do you think to adhere to 50 different regulatory bodies? Many companies wouldn't bother and as a result competition suffer.

Still health care is expensive because no one shops around for it.. the cost benefit decisions are made by other parties. Yet some how you expect downward pressure on prices.

[EasyEs]

No yours are. Medicare is inefficient they overpay for services and equipment. And they have worse health outcomes. Plus it is going broke.

State lines isn't nonsense companies should be efficient but for many reasons they are not often due to perverse regulations and incentives not to be. Your government has passed numerous laws to help medical practitioners enforce their monopoly on numerous medical services.

If you want more competition just allow it for gods sake.

[NShutterbug]

Actually, low administrative cost run entities such as Medicare, Veteran's Health, etc are efficient because no-one is denied health. People on Medicare love their health care. Nonsense about state lines. Companies should be efficient regardless. If you are implying that it is a lack of competition, then govt run healthcare should provide competition. Your arguments are sweeping generalizations.

[EasyEs]

If you don't want companies to lobby. Don't threaten to shut them down.

Take what? Money out for administrative cost plus profit?

I don't know where you think that low administrative cost is a sign of efficiency or better health care outcomes.

Many of the costs are compounded by government regulations and not allowing companies to compete across state lines.

[NShutterbug]

The fraud goes where? To insurance pockets., part of which goes to lobbyists. Take the insurance companies out of the equation - they take 30% as opposed to MediCare which takes about 3%.

[EasyEs]

It probably is..but I don't think insurance CEO salaries are the problem.

The problem is fruad and rising health care costs.

The costs are going up because we demand more for cheaper but miss the fundamental component of lowing prices. Consumer pressure. Instead Americans hand over the decision making to insurance companies and get angry about the results.

It is absurd to believe that you get cheap services of any kind with out pressure applied to be competitive.

[NShutterbug]

People who PAY their premiums out of their own pockets have been DENIED care by the insurance providers - so that they can pocket millions. I think this is a violation of providing a service for payment. It has nothing to do with your pocket.