Patient sues Anthem Blue Cross over liver transplant

In California, a man needed a liver transplant and his insurace company Anthem Blue Cross agreed to pay the bill.  However, soon after the agreement was made his health decreased rapidly.  The doctors told him he would die waiting for a liver in California and advised him to go to Indiana where the wait was much shorter.  Anthem Blue Cross told the patient they would not pay for  a liver in Indiana.  Thankfully, the man was rather wealthy and was able to pay the 205,000 dollars it cost to purchase the liver himself.  The man sued Anthem Blue Cross for caring more about their financial situation and how much it would cost to cover his expenses than his own well being.

The sad part is if this man was not in a position to pay for the expenses of the liver transplant he would have died.  Not everyone is in a position to shell out roughly 200,000 for a liver transplant.  The company should have covered the expense because by not doing so proves that they are more worried about their “bottom line” as the article states than the well being of their insurance customers.  The insurance company said that the patient’s plan only covered certain transplants with certain hospitals and they were not required to foot the bill.  They also said the paitent’s condition was not serious enough to make an exception.  However, maybe the hospital makes a good point but it still seems wrong to let a person die because and insurance company wont cover what is not in the customer’s health care plan, it just seems selfish.