CIGNA: Assaults on Sick People or If You're a Risk, How Can We Make Money?

When we first started going through the ordeal with CIGNA last August, 2008, I started looking over their website to get an idea of what kind of company, really, they were.  Guess what?  There is a great corporate disconnect in this world between what a company says it is committed to do and what actions they finally commit.  From their website:

Income Protection for the Long Haul

CIGNA Long-Term Disability insurance helps members ensure a continued flow of income if you are unable to work for an extended period of time due to an illness or injury. This way members will be able to continue to pay bills and can focus on getting well.

Benefits of the plan include:

• Income protection when unable to work
• Outstanding customer service
• Fast, hassle-free claim service
• Return-to-work support and incentives

Presented here are highlights of CIGNA's Long Term Disability plan. Full terms, conditions and exclusions are contained in the insurance policy. Insurance is provided by Life Insurance Company of North America and CIGNA Life Insurance Company of New York, CIGNA companies. CIGNA Group Insurance^® is a registered service mark of these companies.

Yeah, right.  Focus on getting well and hassle-free claim service--pure, unadulterated lies.  BUT, I'll give them fast--so fast the deny you BEFORE you are eligible to even begin long-term benefits. Let me recap the state of my husband's health last August at the time of CIGNA's first letter of denial:

1.   Five new sizable lesions on his brain and spinal cord--all formed within 1 month of his last MRI, which is the machine at the top of the page.

2.   Blinding migraines.  He had never had headaches before in his life, let alone being plagued with headaches that left his vision blurry.

3.   Blurred vision to the point where he could not read without causing himself more pain or inability to even read text.

4.   Vertigo and dizziness and accompanying nausea.

5.   Blurred vision upon movement.

6,   Increased tingling/burning sensations in his legs and left arm.

7.   Extreme pain in his legs.  At this point, he is in constant neuropathic pain.

8.   Difficulty in balancing himself.

9.   In a state of constant fatigue and extremely depressed about his symptoms and the fact that CIGNA is denying his illness and his disability and is refusing to honor their contract to pay his income so he can "focus on getting well."

What does the company who claims to help their clients "focus on getting well" do? They begin an assault on a sick man.  How do they do that? By lying, by refuting the findings of 2 and then 3 neurologists. By filling up a denial letter with some of the most fallacious claims ever conceived.  By refusing to pay out his benefits so he can focus on getting well. By calling him and telling him he MUST apply for Social Security Benefits or he won't be considered for disability.

We are a family.  Our husband and father is ill.  We are scared.  We have an insurance policy that is supposed to take care of us while we try and get him better.

But that's not how it works in our country.  CIGNA is in the "business of caring." all right, but not about their policy holders and premium payers.  They care only about their bottom line.

And if you need more proof of that, I urge you to do a search on Dawn Smith and CIGNA and then go and sign the petition at MoveOn to CIGNA on Dawn Smith's behalf.  Why?  CIGNA is refusing to remove her operable brain tumor because the hospital where her surgery can be done is out-of-network.

That's the state of health insurance in our country.  Pitiful, pathetic and geared towards making shareholders and their executives wealthy at YOUR expense, your health and well-being.