Look Into My Eyes

Nataline Sarkisyan died when she was seventeen. She needed a liver transplant and had been granted a 65% survival chance during her prognosis, but her parent's insurance company, CIGNA, denied the transplant citing the operation as "too experimental."

When her parents decided to take legal action against their insurance company, the case had been dismissed due to a 1987 Supreme Court decision shielding employer-based healthcare plans from the consequences of their coverage decisions. As appalling as this sounds, the judicial branch of our government has a history of taking strong stances in the name of defending civil and economic liberties. Forbath details judicial action preemptively defending ideological claims like "free labor" and "liberty of contract" in his work, Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement.

CIGNA buckled under pressure some nine days later, but it was too late. Nataline had passed away. And if there is any recourse in this, it's that the Sarkisyans can sue for emotional distress.



It isn't that CIGNA CEO Edward Hanway failed to meet the Sarkisyans and the California Nurses Association representatives in the lobby that morning. The real indignity is being heckled, cat-called, and even flipped off while being escorted out of the building.

Someone's daughter died as a by-product of rubber-stamping rejection orders. Traveling cross-country and demanding some accountability and understanding is met with an obscene gesture. The closure required in dealing with the death of a loved one is met with a half-hearted apology and a middle finger.

It's perfectly acceptable that we all disagree on the details about how to conduct real health care reform in this country, but when the discourse downgrades to bird-flipping, then the good fight is lost right there. Disagreement need not involve disrespect. Being brash and rude is not equivalent to be heard, let alone contemplated and understood.