Catherine Seipp continues to defend the indefensible.
She is battling a horrendous illness.
I'm blessed to be healthy. We all are.
Frankly I felt some of the comments here about her and the excruciating set of circumstances she is dealing with were gratuitously hurtful and unpleasant.
There's plenty of anger, but wishing ill on a sick human being is not the route I would follow.
People might consider challenging her ideas and pray that she regains her health.
That said, most-- though not all--of the comments displayed compassion and empathy for her plight.
There was a recognition that she is dealing with the same set of health care nightmares that tens of millions of Americans also confront.
Our health care system is broken. Although Ms. Seipp is knee deep in the quicksand, she continues to defend the indefensible.
She calls her latest blog entry: Werewolves of Blue Cross.
Indeed. This is what they are. Not just Blue Cross, the entire broken system. Predators and werewolves.
Once again, without even recognizing it, Ms. Seipp makes the case for single-payer health care. She writes:
Actually, my opinion about that whole health-insurance question remains exactly the same as it was before I was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer almost four years ago: The government should provide a safety net, but health insurance should be unbundled from employment and people should do as much as they possibly can to take responsibility for themselves. That's why I bought an individual Blue Cross PPO policy nine years ago, even before the COBRA coverage ran out from my former employer. I also bought private disability insurance, not because I thought I'd get sick -- I was an extremely healthy neversmoker with no family history of cancer -- but because it seemed prudent, which indeed it turned out to be.
And again here. She did everything according to the Bush plan. Still she got fucked.
What I found far more disturbing than those verminy Kos commenters wishing me dead was that so many of even the relatively benign ones couldn't understand the simple point of my L.A. Times op-ed earlier this week: That insurance companies are contractually bound to honor claims of even their most expensive sick patients, and that Blue Cross is trying to weasel out of this -- or trying to rid themselves of these patients by drastically raising out-of-pocket caps.
She just doesn't get it.
For-profit insurance companies must weasel out of their responsibilites--the health of the bottom line is what counts.
http://cathyseipp.journalspace.com/
Ms. Seippp did everything right: She also had the financial resources that many Americans lack.
Ms. Seipp:
1. Took personal responsibility
2. Paid for very expensive health insurance
3. Stayed healthy
4. Bought disability insurance
Despite doing everything correctly. Despite working hard and playing by the rules, she's been sucker punched by Blue Cross of California.
Ms. Seipp, this proves the system is broken. Finished. Caput. Not working. Finito. Garbage. Unfair--leaving 47 million of your fellow citizens uninsured.
Even a call from a "pleasant Blue Cross medical director" does nothing to shake her delusions.
Yesterday I got a call from a very pleasant Blue Cross medical director, Dr. Richard Lehrfeld, who explained that he was upholding the retroactive denial of the "experimental" cancer treatment, called Avastin, even though it had been working for five months. The state may force Blue Cross to reverse that decision, and in any case Genentech (which makes Avastin) will resupply my doctor with the drugs I used at no cost if Blue Cross isn't forced to pay, so at this point I'm not too upset about my personal situation. But I don't like Blue Cross's slippery attitude.
You don't like Blue Cross's "slippery attitude"? Ms. Seipp, connect the fucking dots.
She also wrote a column about Kos, Blue Cross in the NRO:
They Say I've Seen the Light
Criticizing health insurance earns absolution from Daily Kos commenters (except the ones who want me dead).
You can read it here.
http://nationalreview.com/...
Yesterday, Jerome a Paris summarized what I believe most of us feel. He said:
Keep the story up front and center.
You are fighting for her, too, even if she does not want to admit it.
That's what kossacks are about.
We care deeply Ms. Seipp. We care about you. We care that in America in 2006, healthcare is a privilege for people like you and me.
Now it appears even that privilege is an illusion that is no longer working.