Nataline Keeps Bending the Arc of Healthcare Justice
"Someday, my story will be your story," Gregor Sarkisyan, father of the late Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, who died December 20, 2007, as CIGNA denied her care. She could be your child, she could be my child, she was his child. Watch Gregor's still grief-stricken face as he tries again to get some answers that never come.
He spoke at the CIGNA protest in Glendale, CA, on October 28, 2009. Nothing in the current reform bills will stop this. Nothing.
Covering pre-existing conditions and lifting lifetime caps does not stop these profit mongers from denying any and all treatments that reduce their profits for shareholders. There will be more Nataline Sarkisyan stories under the new reform than there already are as denying treatment becomes the main way for the insurance companies to raise profits. More pain. More suffering. More death.
While Congress pats itself on the back and President Obama claims a victory, more children will die. This healthcare reform does not get us to the place where we can know that our care decisions are about health not wealth. It moves us to more uncertainty and it remains a dishonest discussion about all the broken parts of the system, and the reform leaves us at serious risk. Forcing us to buy the product that killed Nataline and leaving in place the defective mechanisms in that product that caused her death is a failure beyond imagination.
No ceremony on the lawn in Washington, DC, washes away the truth.
Did you see in the video how the police helped CIGNA by shielding photos of the arrests? It isn't good PR for them to show policyholders being arrested for seeking answers. And it isn't good PR for our elected officials to see the profiteers they are protecting arresting the people who have trusted them to reform this broken system.
Even after this reform mess passes, we must fight on. Until the waves of healthcare justice break on the shores of compassion and truth, we fight on. Until we bury no more Nataline's murdered by greed and by indifference.
Healthcare is a basic human right, and we know President Obama knows that. We just don't know if granting this human right to all he seeks to lead will continue to be his fight with us.
"The arc of history bends toward justice," the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , told us. We cannot know where we are on that arc, but together we will sharpen that bend.
Follow the money. Stay in the fight. It matters.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
"Someday, my story will be your story," Gregor Sarkisyan, father of the late Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, who died December 20, 2007, as CIGNA denied her care. She could be your child, she could be my child, she was his child. Watch Gregor's still grief-stricken face as he tries again to get some answers that never come.
He spoke at the CIGNA protest in Glendale, CA, on October 28, 2009. Nothing in the current reform bills will stop this. Nothing.
Covering pre-existing conditions and lifting lifetime caps does not stop these profit mongers from denying any and all treatments that reduce their profits for shareholders. There will be more Nataline Sarkisyan stories under the new reform than there already are as denying treatment becomes the main way for the insurance companies to raise profits. More pain. More suffering. More death.
While Congress pats itself on the back and President Obama claims a victory, more children will die. This healthcare reform does not get us to the place where we can know that our care decisions are about health not wealth. It moves us to more uncertainty and it remains a dishonest discussion about all the broken parts of the system, and the reform leaves us at serious risk. Forcing us to buy the product that killed Nataline and leaving in place the defective mechanisms in that product that caused her death is a failure beyond imagination.
No ceremony on the lawn in Washington, DC, washes away the truth.
Did you see in the video how the police helped CIGNA by shielding photos of the arrests? It isn't good PR for them to show policyholders being arrested for seeking answers. And it isn't good PR for our elected officials to see the profiteers they are protecting arresting the people who have trusted them to reform this broken system.
Even after this reform mess passes, we must fight on. Until the waves of healthcare justice break on the shores of compassion and truth, we fight on. Until we bury no more Nataline's murdered by greed and by indifference.
Healthcare is a basic human right, and we know President Obama knows that. We just don't know if granting this human right to all he seeks to lead will continue to be his fight with us.
"The arc of history bends toward justice," the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , told us. We cannot know where we are on that arc, but together we will sharpen that bend.
Follow the money. Stay in the fight. It matters.
"Someday, my story will be your story," Gregor Sarkisyan, father of the late Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, who died December 20, 2007, as CIGNA denied her care. She could be your child, she could be my child, she was his child. Watch Gregor's still grief-stricken face as he tries again to get some answers that never come.
He spoke at the CIGNA protest in Glendale, CA, on October 28, 2009. Nothing in the current reform bills will stop this. Nothing.
Covering pre-existing conditions and lifting lifetime caps does not stop these profit mongers from denying any and all treatments that reduce their profits for shareholders. There will be more Nataline Sarkisyan stories under the new reform than there already are as denying treatment becomes the main way for the insurance companies to raise profits. More pain. More suffering. More death.
While Congress pats itself on the back and President Obama claims a victory, more children will die. This healthcare reform does not get us to the place where we can know that our care decisions are about health not wealth. It moves us to more uncertainty and it remains a dishonest discussion about all the broken parts of the system, and the reform leaves us at serious risk. Forcing us to buy the product that killed Nataline and leaving in place the defective mechanisms in that product that caused her death is a failure beyond imagination.
No ceremony on the lawn in Washington, DC, washes away the truth.
Did you see in the video how the police helped CIGNA by shielding photos of the arrests? It isn't good PR for them to show policyholders being arrested for seeking answers. And it isn't good PR for our elected officials to see the profiteers they are protecting arresting the people who have trusted them to reform this broken system.
Even after this reform mess passes, we must fight on. Until the waves of healthcare justice break on the shores of compassion and truth, we fight on. Until we bury no more Nataline's murdered by greed and by indifference.
Healthcare is a basic human right, and we know President Obama knows that. We just don't know if granting this human right to all he seeks to lead will continue to be his fight with us.
"The arc of history bends toward justice," the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , told us. We cannot know where we are on that arc, but together we will sharpen that bend.
Follow the money. Stay in the fight. It matters.

