Health insurance giant lets 17-year-old girl die

Seventeen-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan died on Dec. 21, 2007 of complications related to her treatment for leukemia.

Krikor Sarkisyan, right, father of Nataline, speaks at a news conference in Los Angeles, Dec. 21.

She died because Cigna Corp., a private health insurance company, refused to approve a liver transplant until it was too late.

Although doctors at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center—where Sarkisyan was being treated—recommended the transplant, Cigna denied the care saying the insurance plan did not cover “experimental, investigational and unproven services.”

Following protests by the California Nurses Association and a call-in campaign, Cigna finally relented and approved the surgery. Sadly, it came too late. Sarkisyan had been kept in a coma, suffering from liver failure and a lung infection, while awaiting her family’s appeal to the insurance company.

The Sarkisyan family has said they will sue the insurance company. Attorney Mark Geragos said he hopes to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna.

Hours before Sarkisyan died, her mother told protesters: “We have a war here.” This is true for tens of millions of working-class people who suffer because the U.S. healthcare industry is aimed at generating profits for a few, and not caring for people’s needs.