What if you couldn't eat solid food? What if you gagged every single time that you tried to eat a slice of pizza or piece of bread? That's the reality for one young "member" of United Healthcare.
Wendell Potter has repeatedly said we got our "ass kicked" by the schmucks at AHIP because we didn't tell the stories of those abused by evil, big-profits insurance well enough.
Well, Mr. Potter, here's a story that deserves more ink by all of us in the progressive and single-payer advocacy communities. United Healthcare -- which is working with Angela "Leave Breast Cancer Patients to Die Quickly" Braly of Wellpoint in an epic new lobbying push -- should be entirely ashamed of what it is doing to this young girl. I'll keep my comments short. Please, just watch. And do something.
Before you watch the video attached to this story, here's what her parents have to say on You Tube:
This is Sarah's story. PLEASE help us in any way you can to get the treatment Sarah desperately needs. E-mail us at prowellfamily@gmail.com with any advice or suggestions. Thanks in advance! Please understand we are NOT looking for money or donations of any kind. We just want people to contact United Healthcare on our behalf to help persuade them to change their minds. We don't have a specific name or address to give anyone as we deal with a different person every time we contact them.
Apparently, United Healthcare doesn't believe that children in this country deserve the right to eat solid foods...ever. And, in case you're curious, United Healthcare has a history of denying children the right to eat. You know, it's their thing.
Imagine, friends, what would happen if 500 people called United Healthcare today to demand that young Sarah be given the treatment she deserves? When the people rise up against these big-profit bastards, they will always back down.
It's tragic that whether or not one receives the health care they deserve in this country is ultimately determined by how successful one is in a game of high-stakes public relations brinkmanship with heartless corporations, but such is our reality in a world of Deadly Spin. (Yes, that was an important plug for an important book by Kos' own Wendell Potter.)
Linked are the national media contacts at United Healthcare. Why not give them a call? Let them know you're a fellow American that doesn't want to see a child denied her right to a normal life by this very rich man, United Healthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley.
And, if you have some extra time after you're done calling United Healthcare, post in the comments your ideas for how we can better keep the heat on big-profits insurance companies that deny care in heartbreaking instances like this one. President Clinton is exactly right -- it's crazy talk to claim America has the "world's best" health care system when things like this young girl's struggle happen each and every day.
