Who Is Killing Jack Cawley?

I read this story in the Times about Mr. Cawley and his cancer, and how the big insurance company is denying him coverage and in essence (according to the article) is killing him.

The headline and supporting headline imply big insurance is out to squash hope, and how the big companies are all drunk with power. Suddenly I'm reminded of what's-his-face with the Fahrenheit movie about Pres. Bush. Is this another cheap shot at Bush-bashing? How could Jeff Sturgeon and the Roanoke Times use these people to get their political views across? What did they tell the family? This is downright disturbing. I can handle the 24-hour bashing of our country's elected leader by every manner of conceivable media we have, but this is low even for these fools.

NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY?

According to Jeff Sturgeon, "Anthem administers the county's self-funded employee health plan." So does that mean the company could amend their contract and say, "hey, we want to pay for this guy's ineffective medicine." Sure, the county doesn't want to play doctor, but if the insurance place is just administering the health plan, why doesn't the county grow a pair and pay for the meds? (Oh, well, I wrote the governor...) Oh puh-leez!

Red tape and chain of commands are great for documentation, but I hope we don't get to a point where I have to get a referral or prior authorization to help some old lady cross the street. I'd have no problem telling a secretary to step aside because I want to help this old lady cross the street, why doesn't the county make an effort? And more importantly, why doesn't our media highlight the plight of this family, rather than use their heart-tugging struggle as a platform to voice their political views on?

Comprende?

SO WHAT'S THE POINT?

Even though I wanted to go beat up someone at the insurance company for killing this man, or so the article would have me "feel", I forced myself to read the entire article before I put together picket signs and printed leaflets on how we should bring "the man" down.

The article ends with how Mr. Cawley quit taking the experimental drug that had been denied because it didn't work on the cancer. Now he's slowly waiting to die. I felt a big lump in my throat to imagine such a man who had been so full of life wither away and die. I know I'm not the only one who felt that way, too.

And despite all the finger-pointing, all the biased political reporting, and all the b.s. from everyone in charge, this man is still going to die. My heart sincerely goes out to his family, and I pray by some miracle of God that he recovers. But if he doesn't, I pray he passes away painlessly and surrounded by love rather than hopelessness, disappointment and anger as our media would have us believe.

Try this for a headline:

LOCAL PAPER STEPS ON DYING MAN TO VOICE POLITICAL VIEWS