Rep. John Lewis meets with constituent Dawn Smith who was denied healthcare

Dawn Smith is a writer from Atlanta who was diagnosed with a rare, but treatable brain tumor 4 years ago. For over 2 years, Dawn has been fighting CIGNA for treatment, unsuccessfully. Last month, when Dawn's story was featured in an email sent by MoveOn to its 5 million members, CIGNA finally began paying attention.

They authorized the first test Dawn would need, but when pressed repeatedly, refused to provide a guarantee that they would cover her actual treatment and they refused to provide any explanation for their years of denials. In a YouTube video that's been seen more than 20,000 times, Dawn continued to press them for an explanation and a guarantee that they were changing the policies that had led to her years of suffering, to no avail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiIBs0mZb9o

The following week, CIGNA told Dawn that the co-pay on one of her primary medications was being increased by thousands of dollars annually. Dawn was again unable to get any explanation for the sudden change. But when a reporter from the Huffington Post called CIGNA, they backtracked once again. The resulting Huffington Post article outlining Dawn's struggles was featured on the site's front page. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/05/dawn-smith-brain-tumor-vi_n_309797.html

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