Norma Rae Dead

This is what death panels do. I didn't know about this till today (she died on the 11th of Sept), and it shocks me. Never ever should have happened this way.

Real 'Norma Rae' dies of cancer after insurer delayed treatment

The North Carolina union organizer who was the inspiration for the movie "Norma Rae" died on Friday of brain cancer after a battle with her insurance company, which delayed her treatment. She was 68.

Crystal Lee Sutton, formerly Crystal Lee Jordan, was fired from her job folding towels at the J.P. Stevens textile plant in her hometown of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. for trying to organize a union in the early 1970s. Her last action at the plant -- writing the word "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and standing on her work table, leading her co-workers to turn off their machines in solidarity -- was memorialized in the 1979 film by actress Sally Field. The police physically removed Sutton from the plant for her action.

But her efforts ultimately succeeded, as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers won the right to represent the plant's employees on Aug. 28, 1974. Sutton later became a paid organizer for the union, which through a series of mergers became part of UNITE HERE before splitting off this year to form Workers United, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

Several years ago, Sutton was diagnosed with meningioma, a type of cancer of the nervous system. While such cancers are typically slow-growing, Sutton's was not -- and she went two months without potentially life-saving medication because her insurance wouldn't cover it initially. Sutton told the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News last year that the insurer's behavior was an example of abuse of the working poor:

"How in the world can it take so long to find out [whether they would cover the medicine or not] when it could be a matter of life or death," she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."

Though Sutton eventually received the medication, the cancer had already taken hold. She passed away on Friday, Sept. 11 in a Burlington, N.C. hospice.

http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/09/ ... tment.html

Was she too stubborn to buy the medicine herself while she was waiting for the insurance to catch up?

SS109 wrote: Was she too stubborn to buy the medicine herself while she was waiting for the insurance to catch up?

Perhaps she didn't have enough money to buy the medication. I don't know. The article does not elaborate.

Chemo drugs plus administration of those drugs can run $15,000/month or more, and the treatment must be for 6 months to be effective. How many average Americans can afford that? Especially if they are not working due to the cancer. My insurance co denied just one drug out of the several chemo drugs I took, but only for only one treatment, I was billed $6800 for that drug and it took 9 months before they finally decided to cover it. Yeah, people can die from lack of money to pay for cancer treatment.

Seems to me she could have gone to her union and asked for their help while she was working things out with the insurance company. Isn't that what unions are for, the help the members of the union and their family when needed? Or are today's unions simply political special interest groups whose purpose is collection of power instead of protection of their members? SEIU doesn't have a hundred grand or so sitting around to make sure one of their most famous and inspiring members has the treatment she needs? Where did all that money go, into political campaign contributions, PACs and salaries for the top tier leadership?

Another case of the union taking care of business instead of it's members.

SS109 wrote: Was she too stubborn to buy the medicine herself while she was waiting for the insurance to catch up?

YOU
apparently know little to nothing about insurances companies.......THIS tactic is wide-spread and has been going on for YEARS......
(read decades)......in fact, many years ago it was brought before a congressional hearing and a claims supervisor/reviewer testified
under oath that she was instrumental in denying similar claims.....it was her mission (dictated by the company) to DELAY judgements
so that time would elapse and the outcome would be DEATH....apparently NOTHING has really changed since those hearings.....JMO

PrintSmith wrote: Seems to me she could have gone to her union and asked for their help while she was working things out with the insurance company. Isn't that what unions are for, the help the members of the union and their family when needed? Or are today's unions simply political special interest groups whose purpose is collection of power instead of protection of their members? SEIU doesn't have a hundred grand or so sitting around to make sure one of their most famous and inspiring members has the treatment she needs? Where did all that money go, into political campaign contributions, PACs and salaries for the top tier leadership?

Do you really think that she could have gone to her union to get payment for the medication? That's the sole purpose of health insurance - it's not the purpose of unions. Typical that you would deflect away from an insurance company essentially becoming a death panel and try to pin the blame on a union.

If you read the article, you would know that it took two months for her insurance company to approve the medication. In that time, the cancer took hold in her body and the medication was ineffective. Had she received the medication earlier, it may have saved her life.

Martin Ent Inc wrote: Another case of the union taking care of business instead of it's members.

I'm sure you meant to say "Another case of the insurance companies taking care of the bottom line instead of paying for their customers health care."

It's quite interesting that the righties will blame the Union for not doing something they should not be doing in the first place, but give a complete pass to the Insurance company that was being paid premiums to cover her and dragged their feet long enough so she dies. Is it any wonder that Insurance companies get away with this stuff all the time, they know that at least half the country will support their efforts to make as much money as they can while denying people the product those people paid for.

I do wonder if they would feel the same way if it was their mother, or sister who died because the insurance company failed to provide coverage in a timely manner.