Denying a Public Option Denies Life for #Eric De La Cruz and Others

Cases like this are why the Public Option matters.



Many people have addressed this including Celebrities such as Trent Reznor, Jane's Addiction, Actor Archie Kao, Skateboarder Tony Hawk but I think this real life example needs to be part of the current Health Care debate - this 27 year-old young man needs a Heart Transplant but can't get Private Insurance because of his Pre-Existing Condition and can't get the Public Option of Medicare because - it's not available to him.

By focusing Attention and polling energy and resources through sites like Tweet4Eric.com it might be possible to save this young man with donations before it's too late.

Eric De La Cruz is a young man with severe dilated cardiomyopathy. His health is failing and he needs a new heart as soon as possible. Because of unfortunate circumstances, he has faced tremendous obstacles in getting on the transplant list as a status 1a candidate. He has since had emergency bi-VAD surgery and is awaiting re-listing on the transplant list as soon as he recovers sufficently. Prayers are requested to help Eric get through the next stage of this saga as he remains in critical condition

But what about the next person?

In fact, what about the last person who went through this same type of high-profile Murder by Spreadsheet? What about Nataline Sarkisyan?

GLENDALE, Calif. - The family of a 17-year-old girl who died hours after her health insurer reversed a decision and said it would pay for a liver transplant plans to sue the company, their attorney said Friday.

Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday at about 6 p.m. at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he plans to ask the district attorney to press murder or manslaughter charges against Cigna HealthCare in the case. The insurer “maliciously killed her” because it did not want to bear the expense of her transplant and aftercare, Geragos said.

Then as now, the issue was "Cost".

While the Senate backs cowardly away from a Public Option, people are dying without coverage because Private Insurers are simply Too Damn Greedy to provide the coverage people are already paying for.

Fortune 500's List of Most Profitable Industries for 2008 (Profit as % of Revenues)

1	Network and Other Communications Equipment	28.8%
2	Mining, Crude-Oil Production	23.8%
3	Pharmaceuticals	15.8%
4	Medical Products and Equipment	15.2%
5	Oil and Gas Equipment, Services	13.7%
6	Commercial Banks	12.6%
7	Railroads	12.4%
8	Entertainment	12.4%
9	Insurance: Life, Health (stock)	10.6%
10	Household and Personal Products	10.2%

3 out of the top 10 most profitable industries in the U.S. are directly linked to Health Care, and the way the profits are maintained is by taking in premiums then Denying Care to People Who Need It the Most.

How much More Money do these people need to make, and how many people will suffer and die needlessly in order to give it to them?

People Like Eric. People like Nataline.

People like me and my Wife who's been on Medicaid for the last few years since the IT industry collapse and Enron destroyed my Consulting Career in Sacramento and forced us to move and me to take an entry level job at about 1/5th my previous salary. A job with no Health Care.

Nearly a Year ago her knee gave out and she feel down a flight of stair causing a back injury, in addition to a compression fracture at her T-11 vertabre. It took six months just to get UCLA Medical center to even X-Ray her back, and we still haven't heard what they found.

They told us the T-!! fracture is inoperable, and that she's too young (early 50's) for a knee replacement that will probably wear out before she does so they just Won't DO IT.

The things we've personally seen with other people in the UCLA Emergency Room while trying to address her condition would make your hair stand on end.

The attitude in places such as that (and frankly in Washington) is that if you're poor - you simply don't deserve to live. It's like medical care is some kind of luxury, like a nice new Car or Flat screen TV. If you can't pay for it - YOU DON'T DESERVE IT.

Well FUCK THAT, we do deserve it. All of us.

We have to change, drastically change this attitude. If there's a "Right To Life", then there's A Right to LIVING free of preventable disease and pain. We need to focus the Fact like a LASER at Congress, particularly the Senate, as we remember what this means for people like Eric he continues through his struggle, what it would have ment for Nataline if life preserving care cuold not have been denied simply because it cut into the insurance companies Profit margin - and all the rest of us out here either under insured or not insured at all, who have to let small issues go under they become huge, dangerous and expensive for everyone else.

You can donate to Eric's Cause via Paypal by visiting http://tweet4eric.com

You can help the rest of us by Calling your Senator. NOW!

Vyan

Update via Comments -

per Veronica's Tweet "A judge approved Eric's medicare on 5/21/09..."

But this was only because of the extraordinary attention drawn to his extreme case, and the efforts of his sister Veronica (who is a TV journalist), Trent Reznor, Dave Navarro/Jane's Addiction, other celebrities and a veritable Twitter Army. Who ultimately drew enough attention to his case to get Sen Harry Reid to intervene and get Eric an emergency hearing for his Soc Security Disability to be approved--you can't get Medicare without it. His initial applications had been denied, and his next hearing was a YEAR down the road, even though his Ejection Fraction was down to something like 15%. Which means his heart is barely functioning.

Confirmed by 13 Action News. - Happened while I was typing this up. Hopefully it's not too late for him as it was for Nataline.

That's one down - 41 Million to go!