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Real ‘Norma Rae’ dead of cancer after battle with health insurer

danarhea

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The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

Insurance company death panel strikes again. It is notable that insurance company death panels routinely sentence people to death each and every day. It is also notable that, under either the Democratic or Republican health plans in Congress, this would be a criminal act. If the Republicans get what they want, that is, no Obama Care, Liberals should still be happy that insurance company death panels would be illegal. Liberals and Conservatives can argue all they want about the rest, but don't you think this would be a decent first step? IMHO, this provision, under the plans from BOTH sides, would be the American thing to do. Whatever we argue about on the rest of either plan, this provision needs to be passed NOW.

Article is here.
 
How unfortunate. I could not imagine what it would be like fighting insurance companies for my right to coverage. I am blessed to be living in a country where there's no question to treatment.
 
Insurance company death panel strikes again. [...]

If you can only afford a Kia subcompact and not a Porsche, were you a victim of the "car dealership slow acceleration panel"? :confused:


[...] I could not imagine what it would be like fighting insurance companies for my right to coverage. [...]

You do not have the right to steal from others, no matter how badly you may want it.
 
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If you can only afford a Kia subcompact and not a Porsche, were you a victim of the "car dealership slow acceleration panel"? :confused:




You do not have the right to steal from others, no matter how badly you may want it.

If that Kia was originally misrepresented as a Porsche, then hell yes.
 
How unfortunate. I could not imagine what it would be like fighting insurance companies for my right to coverage. I am blessed to be living in a country where there's no question to treatment.

Yes there is all the time one of the many reason many Canuks come to America for health Treatment.
 
Remember Katrina? The insurance companies hire professionals to look for any reason they can find to disqualify a claim. Lots of Katrina victims got shafted by the insurance companies.

Insurance companies are not in business to help people. They are in business to make money.

Moe
 
If that Kia was originally misrepresented as a Porsche, then hell yes.

Like all people involved with the "labor movement", Norma Rae has a reputation for being a very dishonest and violent person. Without knowing all the evidence, it is not unreasonable to assume that she tried to use her fame to extort money from the insurance company that she was not contractually entitled to.

But if that insurance company has in fact violated their contract, then I stand corrected.


Insurance companies are not in business to help people. They are in business to make money.

That elementary fact of life should be taught in kindergarten along with "2 + 2 == 4".
 
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Remember Katrina? The insurance companies hire professionals to look for any reason they can find to disqualify a claim. Lots of Katrina victims got shafted by the insurance companies.

Insurance companies are not in business to help people. They are in business to make money.

Moe

Probably not the best example, since real fraudulent claims where at an unreal high there. Does not invalidate your point, which I agree with, but some of the things that people did to take advantage of the situation down there was just incredible.
 
Like all people involved with the "labor movement", Norma Rae has a reputation for being a very dishonest and violent person. Without knowing all the evidence, it is not unreasonable to assume that she tried to use her fame to extort money from the insurance company that she was not contractually entitled to.

But if that insurance company has in fact violated their contract, then I stand corrected.

You do have some proof that Norma Rae was a dishonest and violent person correct.
 
Unions cannot have any effect without violence.
 
Unions cannot have any effect without violence.

Prove it, also still waiting for the Proof on Norma Rae you made a very bold and blanket statement so back it up with real proof.

Oh so when the Union goes on strike and the Company Owners send in Scabs and Police to break up the strike yea your right on that part.
 
This is false. Unions have effects every day without violence.

Then why does anyone hire unionized workers, thereby paying more money without getting more value in return?


Oh so when the Union goes on strike and the Company Owners send in Scabs and Police to break up the strike yea your right on that part.

Thank you for not being entirely ignorant of property rights. (I don't believe in government police though, a private defense agency would be much more trustworthy and cost-effective.)
 
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Then why does anyone hire unionized workers, thereby paying more money without getting more value in return?




Thank you for not being entirely ignorant of property rights. (I don't believe in government police though, a private defense agency would be much more trustworthy and cost-effective.)

Your problem is you want to live in this imaginary land that does not and cannot exist. The rest of us are busy living in and discussing the real world.
 
Prove it, also still waiting for the Proof on Norma Rae you made a very bold and blanket statement so back it up with real proof.

Oh so when the Union goes on strike and the Company Owners send in Scabs and Police to break up the strike yea your right on that part.

Unions can be good or bad, depending on the situation. For the sweat shops, unions were a very good thing. However, let me relate to you a true story from my own life that demonstrates that unions can be a very bad thing under some circumstances.

In 1974 and 1975, I was working for Lear-Siegler in Grand Rapids, Michigan, troubleshooting AYN-1 and DC-130 navigational computers. One day, I needed a piece of test equipment that I did not have in my rack, so I went to another rack that nobody was using, where the piece of test equipment I needed was, and took it and brought it to my rack. I did this because I would have had to sit on my ass for several hours for the following reasons:

1) A test equipment calibrator must be called to come over and take out the screws holding the test equipment to the rack.

2) A lugger then must be called to move the piece of test equipment.

3) Once the equipment is at your rack, you still could not use it until a test equipment calibrator was called over to put the screws in and secure it to your rack.

Because I violated this procedure, and because I did not want to sit on my ass doing nothing, I was fined 50 bucks by the UAW, which was the union I had to be in to work at Lear-Siegler. A few weeks later, I got a job at Texas Instruments, and moved to Houston - No union required, and that suited me just fine.

Here is the problem with unions - At first, they are needed so that workers can make a living wage. But after its primary goals are achieved, the union has a new goal - Gaining power, and in the course of achieving that power, priorities go out the window.
 
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Your problem is you want to live in this imaginary land that does not and cannot exist. The rest of us are busy living in and discussing the real world.

We are both discussing the real world right now. The difference is that my moral philosophy recognizes individual rights and your philosophy violently violates them.

My moral philosophy teaches men to fish, your moral philosophy makes them dependent on stealing other people's fish until there's no more fish to steal, and then they starve.
 
We are both discussing the real world right now. The difference is that my moral philosophy recognizes individual rights and your philosophy violently violates them.

My moral philosophy teaches men to fish, your moral philosophy makes them dependent on stealing other people's fish until there's no more fish to steal, and then they starve.

Apparently your moral philosophy is to misrepresent other peoples beliefs to some extreme you can argue against. Unions do not steal from any one, which is one of their few positive points.
 
Unions can be good or bad, depending on the situation. For the sweat shops, unions were a very good thing. However, let me relate to you a true story from my own life that demonstrates that unions can be a very bad thing under some circumstances.

In 1974 and 1975, I was working for Lear-Siegler in Grand Rapids, Michigan, troubleshooting AYN-1 and DC-130 navigational computers. One day, I needed a piece of test equipment that I did not have in my rack, so I went to another rack that nobody was using, where the piece of test equipment I needed was, and took it and brought it to my rack. I did this because I would have had to sit on my ass for several hours for the following reasons:

1) A test equipment calibrator must be called to come over and take out the screws holding the test equipment to the rack.

2) A lugger then must be called to move the piece of test equipment.

3) Once the equipment is at your rack, you still could not use it until a test equipment calibrator was called over to put the screws in and secure it to your rack.

Because I violated this procedure, and because I did not want to sit on my ass doing nothing, I was fined 50 bucks by the UAW, which was the union I had to be in to work at Lear-Siegler. A few weeks later, I got a job at Texas Instruments, and moved to Houston - No union required, and that suited me just fine.

Here is the problem with unions - At first, they are needed so that workers can make a living wage. But after its primary goals are achieved, the union has a new goal - Gaining power, and in the course of achieving that power, priorities go out the window.

I have always felt the problem with unions is that the union leaders tend to forget who they are working for, and get caught up in a win at any cost mentality. It's a generalization, but I think a fair one. Unions do a lot of good, but they manage to make a lot of messes as well.
 
Another fallacy.

Really prove it then, I'm from Maine have family in New Hampshire and Upper State New York who work in Hospitals and health Providers and they have since the mid 80s seen more and more Canadians come down t the US for all sort of treatment do to the fact they can't get coverage.
 
If you can only afford a Kia subcompact and not a Porsche, were you a victim of the "car dealership slow acceleration panel"? :confused:

You do not have the right to steal from others, no matter how badly you may want it.

You make a very valid point here. If you cannot affford to live then die and get out of the way of the living. Same goes for those who cannot afford to eat. They can starve to death ( lucky no one is actually starving is the USA).

Your libertarian philosophy is so correct you know. Even insurance is communistic in principle. If that woman had the same insurance company that one of us did that means that my premium and yorsr went to pay for her cancer treament. How unfair. SHe was the one who went out and got cancer so why should he pay for it.

This is just so unfair to the healthy policy holders. What did this woman think that she would get paid for getting sick. What an idiot she was.

If she was to get paid for getting sick they would call it SICK INSURANCE it's called health insurance for Christ's sake.

I think that I just figured out what is wrong with our health care system. We have too many sick people.
 
Per that blog, the problem she had with the insurance company was a 2 month wait for them to approve paying for medication which may have helped her.


[Sutton] went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.

“How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,” she said. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame.

Not to sound callous, but while waiting for approval, she couldn't find a way to buy her meds herself??? If her life depended on it, than dammit find a friggen way. I had some issues w/an insurance company not approving some meds for my son when he was a baby. and there was no way I was going to let him suffer. I bought the sh*t myself until the ins co figured it out and reimbursed me.

They say it was life or death. Mortgage your house. Beg a rich uncle. Go to your union. Do something to save yourself. Don;t just roll over and die because the insurance company had a snaffu. I honestly doubt Norma Rae would have just said, "Oh well. I guess I won't get the meds I need."

edit: The insurance company paid for chemo, 2 surgeries and the meds she was previously denied. You guys make it sound like they just let her die while laughing all the way to the bank.
 
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Per that blog, the problem she had with the insurance company was a 2 month wait for them to approve paying for medication which may have helped her.




Not to sound callous, but while waiting for approval, she couldn't find a way to buy her meds herself??? If her life depended on it, than dammit find a friggen way. I had some issues w/an insurance company not approving some meds for my son when he was a baby. and there was no way I was going to let him suffer. I bought the sh*t myself until the ins co figured it out and reimbursed me.

They say it was life or death. Mortgage your house. Beg a rich uncle. Go to your union. Do something to save yourself. Don;t just roll over and die because the insurance company had a snaffu. I honestly doubt Norma Rae would have just said, "Oh well. I guess I won't get the meds I need."

edit: The insurance company paid for chemo, 2 surgeries and the meds she was previously denied. You guys make it sound like they just let her die while laughing all the way to the bank.

Paying fpr chemo and surgeries as long as they are not experimental is what we are supposed to do and that is what the person or organization who pays for the premium has agreed to with the insurance company. I didn't see why her meds were temporarily denied but were they not generic or maybe they were not part of the company's grug formulary. She needs to know that she should not get a disease that requires a drug that is not in the formulary.

She obviously did not plan this out too well.
 
Per that blog, the problem she had with the insurance company was a 2 month wait for them to approve paying for medication which may have helped her.




Not to sound callous, but while waiting for approval, she couldn't find a way to buy her meds herself??? If her life depended on it, than dammit find a friggen way. I had some issues w/an insurance company not approving some meds for my son when he was a baby. and there was no way I was going to let him suffer. I bought the sh*t myself until the ins co figured it out and reimbursed me.

They say it was life or death. Mortgage your house. Beg a rich uncle. Go to your union. Do something to save yourself. Don;t just roll over and die because the insurance company had a snaffu. I honestly doubt Norma Rae would have just said, "Oh well. I guess I won't get the meds I need."

edit: The insurance company paid for chemo, 2 surgeries and the meds she was previously denied. You guys make it sound like they just let her die while laughing all the way to the bank.

Buy the drug, later if you you are still alive challenge the company's decision or go to arbitration is you have them in your state.
 
Wait a minuyte Norma Rae isn't she from a right to die state. Or maybe it was a right to work ( for low wages ) state. !!
 
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