Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198537
NewsBriefs CNA/NNOCChallengesInsurersinChicago eople paying attention to the news might have heard recently about Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old Los Angeles girl who died after being twice denied a liver transplant by her family's insurer, CIGNA, but denial of care stories by insurers are becoming more common each day. Chicagoans on Jan. 16 learned about Cyril Strezo, a 58-year-old Illinois cancer patient whose request for chemotherapy was denied by his insurance carrier UniCare. His treatment was only approved in early December after the intervention of Illinois' attorney general and state Rep. Mary Flowers, and the consequent delay has led to a significant worsening of Strezo's condition. Strezo's daughter, Judy Polka, and other supporters of eliminating insurance companies from our healthcare system spoke at a rally for healthcare justice in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Organized by CNA/NNOC, some 50 registered nurses, patients, ministers, legislators, and healthcare activists defied the bitter cold, gathering outside CIGNA's Illinois headquarters to draw widespread media attention to the injustice of care denied by corporate insurers and to support single-payer, universal healthcare. Flowers, moved by Strezo's and Sarkisyan's stories, has introduced a bill strengthening Illinois patients' rights of appeal. But Flowers, the chief sponsor of single-payer in Illinois, HB 311, P 8 REGISTERED NURSE concluded her speech by acknowledging that the real solution to these tragedies is the removal of the insurance industry entirely through enactment of single-payer. Many other speakers highlighted why the insurance industry should not control healthcare. CNA/NNOC board member Brenda Langford invoked the legacy of Dr. King and his oft-repeated statement that "of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane." Langford told the crowd, "I know, in my heart, that if Dr. King were alive today, he would be with us on this issue." Rose Ann DeMoro, CNA/ NNOC executive director, reaffirmed that the organization would honor Sarkisyan's death through action. Cook County Stewards Chair Batu Shakari and Rev. Marshall Hatch both spoke with passion of the injustice and immorality of the practices of denial by the insurance industry. Marilyn Plowmann, RN and Director of Physician Practices at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, chronicled the daily headaches and heartache of dealing with the insurance industry's practice of claims denial. Her biggest problem insurer? CIGNA, which insures state employees. John Laesch, a single-payer advocate running for the key 14th Congressional Dis- trict, promised to fight for passage of HR 676, a federal single-payer bill, if elected to the next Congress. Polka spoke lovingly of her father and the battle her family was waging against his terrible disease and their insurer as her mother, Strezo's wife Terry, stood quietly crying by her side. Turning from sadness to anger, Polka said, "UniCare has failed [my dad] and it has failed my family. My dad's treatment had nothing to do with some lady in a cubicle that does not have a license to practice medicine. UniCare decides, based on their financial calculations, who should live and who should not." The King Day rally was followed the next day with a small but intense picket by CNA/NNOC, community activists, and ministers of a forum organized by CIGNA for the insurance industry, featuring the president-elect of the American Medical Association and an insurance executive. The unfolding Strezo story, Flowers' bill, and CNA/NNOC's anti-insurance company, pro-single-payer organizing captured local TV headlines that night. Flowers is organizing legislative hearings of her patients' rights bill and CNA/NNOC will be there to build support for its passage. —frank borgers ILLINOIS W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2008