Insurer won't cover formula child needs to live

In a health care system, if a doctor decides you need something in order to live, you get it. But BushAmerica doesn't have a health care system.

Just outside New York City, a 3-year-old girl is allergic to food. Any food she's ever tried, she's had a reaction that damages tissue in her esophagus. This reaction is potentially fatal. (This condition was almost never seen before 1995, but now about one in 10,000 children has it.) But doctors prescribed a hypoallergenic formula that provides the nutrients that would otherwise be found in ordinary food.

The trouble is that this supplement costs $1,200 per month - and her family's health insurance that's provided through her dad's job as a police lieutenant has stopped paying for it.

The formula is the only thing in the world the child can eat without having a life-threatening allergic reaction - and insurance won't even cover it!

Her doctors are furious.

What's the point in even getting insurance? It doesn't cover the treatments people need (as this is at least the third story like this I've covered this month), so what does it cover?

Insurance covers part of the cost of some cosmetic procedures (as I just found out by searching on Google), but it won't cover life-saving prescriptions. That's how topsy-turvy the American health system's priorities have become.

How much longer is the American public willing to tolerate a broken system that just keeps getting worse?

(Source: http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071228/NEWS02/712280372)