Murder Inc. [by spreadsheet]

Sometimes amidst the sniping and other assorted crap that goes on over at le Grand Orange, there's a diary that both makes you want to scream with rage but at the same time gives you hope for us all.

Yesterday it was this one, which told us of a seventeen-year-old in need of a liver transplant that was denied by by CIGNA. After the company was barraged by phone calls from people who read about Nataline Sarkisyan's plight, the decision was reversed and the transplant was approved.

A happy ending, right? Not quite. Nataline Sarkisyan died a few hours after a paper-pusher's denial of care decision was reversed:

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA Healthcare on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant.

On Thursday, about 150 teenagers and nurses protested outside CIGNA's office in Glendale. As the protesters rallied, the company reversed its decision and said it would approve the transplant.

Despite the reversal, CIGNA said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline's case.

"Our hearts go out to Nataline and her family, as they endure this terrible ordeal," the company said. " ... CIGNA HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant."

Officials with CIGNA could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday night.

I'll just bet they couldn't. Nor will they today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Or any time ever in the future.

Do you know people who have lost loved ones during the holidays? I do. All too many of them, including one who lost a daughter in her early 20's soon after New Year's. The holiday season is never the same after that. Here is a family that has to live with the knowledge that their daughter is dead because a gumchewer on the other end of the phone at a health insurance company looked at a spreadsheet and decided that a seventeen-year-old didn't deserve a chance at life because to give her that chance might mean that CIGNA CEO H. Edward Hanway might earn less than $10 million a year and so that the company could boast a 22% increase in profits for the third quarter.

Those profits are blood money -- money earned by denying care to desperately ill people like Nataline Sarkisyan and denying coverage to other people with pre-existing conditions.

The very same people who call themselves "pro-life" will go to the mat to have fertilized eggs declared the same as human beings, but they oppose universal health care even if it means a seventeen-year-old dies.

Imagine how many Nataline Sarkisyans there are in the United States. How many families are going into Christmas week fighting for care that they can't get because the CEO has to earn multimillions and Wall Street has to be happy?

If Barack Obama wants to know why you can't let these people sit at the table with you and "negotiate" health care, this is why. Because when they "negotiate", real people die.