In late 2023, I was diagnosed with stage three cancer. It was the beginning of a dark time and struggle that continues to this day.
Shortly after my diagnosis, I began a course of radiation and chemotherapy at Hartford Hospital. I hoped to avoid surgery, but at the end of August, I had an operation that required a five-day hospital stay.
The positive outcome of surgery: I was proclaimed cancer free. But that’s when things actually got worse.
Within days of leaving the hospital, I developed a life-threatening post-operative infection, putting me back in Hartford Hospital for nearly the entire month of September.
While healing at home in October, my doctor’s office called to say we’d need to reschedule my follow-up appointment. Cigna and Hartford Healthcare were in a contract dispute, and should an agreement not be reached, Hartford HealthCare would be “out of network,” essentially removing me from the team responsible for my care for nearly a year.
With less than 60 percent of my cancer recovery complete, I found myself caught in the middle of two billion-dollar corporations with millionaire CEOs who were only looking to get richer. Worse still, I was not alone as thousands of other Cigna customers receiving care at Hartford Health Care now faced similar risks.
I had survived chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery yet the most grueling part of my cancer journey was the wedge Cigna and Hartford Healthcare placed between me and my care team, all at the expense of my mental health.
Compensation for for-profit insurance executives is appalling. In 2021, Cigna CEO David Cordani was paid $79 million — and not only that, for-profit insurance executives also spent billions buying back shares of its stock, a tactic which only enriches already wealthy shareholders at the expense of patient care.
What do these CEOs do to earn such extraordinarily lavish wealth? There are several reasons. Let’s take a look at a few.
ProPublica revealed recently that Cigna and other health insurance companies now use AI to deny thousands of claims in seconds with a single mouse click.
Also, health insurance companies have developed pharmacy benefit managers – the three largest of which control more than 90 percent of all prescriptions filled in the United States by contracting with big pharma to decide which drugs are covered under their formularies, and at what cost, essentially creating a monopoly on the medication we take every day.
Medicare Advantage, in which insurers make additional profits with their distorted version of Medicare, costs seniors slightly less up front but makes further money for big insurers by denying care, with sometimes lethal results all at our expense.
It’s well known that in the United States we spend more than any other country on healthcare, only to get worse outcomes than other developed nations. There are some glimmers of hope, especially here in New England and Connecticut.
Prospect Health, owners of three Connecticut hospitals, has filed for bankruptcy in Connecticut.
Lawmakers and advocates here have worked on a public option, providing coverage to nonprofits and small businesses, and many other affordability measures, addressing medical debt and getting a handle on prescription drug costs.
In neighboring Massachusetts recently passed a bill that will reign in private equity’s role in owning hospitals,
Change won’t be easy. Hartford is, after all, the country’s insurance capital, and well-paid lobbyists work hard to peddle a broken status quo, keeping insurance companies in the interest not of the ill but of shareholders of billion-dollar corporations. We need to demand that the governor and our elected officials give us relief from this broken and indefensible healthcare system.
Now, Hartford Health is in a similar dispute with UnitedHealth, meaning thousands of others could be put through what I went through. Not a single one of the patients caught between these disputes deserved to have their care needlessly threatened by a battle between companies that are diverting billions of dollars from care.
Please work with local lawmakers and groups, such as the CT Citizen Action Group (CCAG), to get us the change we deserve.
Although Cigna and Hartford Healthcare reached an undisclosed agreement to continue my care and the care of others, the needlessly cruel battle with my insurance company, coupled with the feeling of being at odds with my doctors and caregivers, led to very dark days where I found myself still struggling.
Tim Appleton of South Windsor works for a national non-profit and is an active member of the CT Citizen Action Group.