Re: "After Loss, a Push to Change Rules," Oct. 8:
Hilda Sarkisyan, on behalf of her daughter -- dead because of her insurer's denial of a liver transplant -- seeks to jettison the infamous 1974 ERISA provisions, which shield insurers from wrongful-death suits.
There may be an additional remedy: citizen's arrest for homicide or wrongful death of politicians blocking access to universal health coverage. A recent Harvard study indicates that nearly 45,000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurance and care. Why is deliberately maintaining the status quo and its death toll not viewed as homicide or wrongful death?
Roger Carasso
Los Angeles ::
This article finally answered my question as to why Kaiser denied my cancer-stricken daughter a stem cell transplant recommended by the City of Hope. Is ERISA why Kaiser is also allowed to continue its policy of placing all cancer patients at a lower priority of receiving blood transfusions? Although this denial will not kill immediately [it allows] for a slow death of these expensive patients.
