Insurer won't approve cancer treatment

The wingnutosphere is delusional enough to think it's succeeded at killing health care reform. Once this story gets out, you're going to see an even greater push for real reform than before.

A 45-year-old woman in Chico, California, is now battling Blue Shield because it won't pay for life-saving cancer treatment - even though her doctor said she needed it.

Without the procedure, her chances for survival are slim. With the procedure, she will most likely live. How can it be any more clear-cut than that?

America is probably the only country in the world where insurers can overrule medical decisions made by doctors.

To make matters worse, there's a little known federal law that guts the right to hold insurers accountable when they kill a patient by intentionally denying treatment that was ordered by a doctor. Regardless of what California law may say, imperial diktats from Washington have long illegally "preempted" states' powers to allow consumers to hold insurers responsible.

The state of California needs to seize Blue Shield's assets unless it approves the treatment.

(Source: http://cbs5.com/local/cancer.treatment.denied.2.1007394.html;
http://blogs.redding.com/bross/archives/2009/06/and-republicans.html)