Real 'Norma Rae' Died Of Cancer Friday - Insurance Co. Delayed Meds: "Almost Like Committing Murder"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6529637

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/rae-28060-burlington-sutton.html

Sutton, inspiration of 'Norma Rae' and Burlington resident, dead at 68

September 11, 2009 4:31 PM
Times-News

Crystal Lee Sutton, the Burlington resident and former textile mill worker who tirelessly campaigned for workers’ rights and inspired an Oscar-winning film, died Friday.

Formerly known as Crystal Lee Jordan, Sutton died at the Hospice Home of Burlington. She was 68.

In 1975, New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote “Crystal Lee, A Woman of Inheritance,” a book that chronicles Sutton’s life and efforts to unionize employees of the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids in the early 1970s. That story was later adapted into the 1979 film “Norma Rae.”

Sally Field portrayed Sutton and won her first Academy Award.

Article from June 2008:

http://www.crystalleesutton.com/tn_article.html

"She has been married to Lewis Preston Sutton Jr. for 30 years and he works two jobs to take care of her while she battles Meniginoma - a cancer that is usually slow growing with benign tumors. Unfortunately, that is not the case for Sutton.

'I said I've always been different and I wouldn't have this cancer thing be any other way. I accept it,' she said. 'It has to follow my personality.'

She went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn't cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.

'How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,' she said. 'It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.'

She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame. Her thin black hair is brittle from the drugs and chemo treatments. She has had brain surgery twice -once on Jan. 29, 2007, and again on Jan. 11, 2008.





Actor Sally Field with Crystal Lee

[Solly Mack]

1. No almost to it

K&R

[Hissyspit]

10. Single payer universal health care or just health insurance reform?

Not having health insurance will bankrupt you and kill you, but having insurance can bankrupt you and kill you, too. Rest in peace, Ms. Sutton, and condolences to her survivors.

Arrangements are incomplete with McClure Funeral Home in Graham, but you can check back with them.

[Solly Mack]

11. I'm a universal kind of girl myself

[hmorehead]

82. It is at least exactly like negligent homicide

or reckless endangerment resulting in homicide. Criminal indiference. Tort reform is not the problem. Doctors in the hands of Pharmicuticals and at the beck of insurance company are a problem. Profits made by death panels rationing health care at the insurance companies are the problem. Reform the regulation of insurance companies? By the companies that will not be regulated protected by elected officials that will be bought. Some people forget. FDA was introduced by T. Roosevelt, not FDR. EPA was brought in during Nixon. The voting rights ammendment came then also. Its not about parties. Its about doing the right thing now.

I remember talking against Medicare in the '60's and it was the topic one debate club year. I was wrong and as a Republican I cannot believe how out of Republican hands the GOP has gotten. Pat Buchanan bought the Indendent Party and the NeoCons hijacked the GOP. And it is killing people every single day. And AIG went down while buying Jet Aircraft and giving tens of millions to Democrats but mainly to "Republican" legislatures.

I voted for two Bush three times. I voted for Bill Clinton's re-election (Bill is one of the best pro-business moderate REPUBLICAN Presidents of all times after you overlook the perjury thing), I voted for Sen Kerry, I voted for President Obama.

[hmorehead]

83. It is at least exactly like negligent homicide

or reckless endangerment resulting in homicide. Criminal indiference. Tort reform is not the problem. Doctors in the hands of Pharmicuticals and at the beck of insurance company are a problem. Profits made by death panels rationing health care at the insurance companies are the problem. Reform the regulation of insurance companies? By the companies that will not be regulated protected by elected officials that will be bought. Some people forget. FDA was introduced by T. Roosevelt, not FDR. EPA was brought in during Nixon. The voting rights ammendment came then also. Its not about parties. Its about doing the right thing now.

I remember talking against Medicare in the '60's and it was the topic one debate club year. I was wrong and as a Republican I cannot believe how out of Republican hands the GOP has gotten. Pat Buchanan bought the Indendent Party and the NeoCons hijacked the GOP. And it is killing people every single day. And AIG went down while buying Jet Aircraft and giving tens of millions to Democrats but mainly to "Republican" legislatures.

I voted for two Bush three times. I voted for Bill Clinton's re-election (Bill is one of the best pro-business moderate REPUBLICAN Presidents of all times after you overlook the perjury thing), I voted for Sen Kerry, I voted for President Obama.

[FormerDittoHead]

85. Let's not change a working system!

It works REALLY well for those who make money off of sick people!

Why change a good thing, just because a handful end up going bankrupt and dying from lack of treatment?

LET'S COMPROMISE....

Did anyone see Bill Maher on Friday? It's time that Charlie Brown stop trying to kick the football...

[baldguy]

39. +1

[aquart]

76. What Solly Mack said. No "almost."

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Recommended!

:thumbsup:

[11 Bravo]

3. There's your fucking "death panel", Palin, you ignorant cow.

[Patiod]

48. +1

[progressivebydesign]

49. but Palin doesn't want "govt" making decisions like that, only office clerks at insurance corps. n/t

[PSzymeczek]

53. Or, to quote Amy Madigan's character

in "Field of Dreams": "You Nazi cow!"

[Tansy_Gold]

79. My thought exactly.

I was channel surfing the other night and Field of Dreams showed up. I left it on just to hear that line.

Rest in peace, Crystal Lee.




Tansy Gold

[flyarm]

4. K&R and RIP Crystal..she fought for all of us ..eom

[Kind of Blue]

5. Thanks for posting this, Hissyspit.

May we all face our deaths with such courage under such extreme circumstances, just as she lived her life. RIP Crystal Lee Sutton.

[Delphinus]

40. Amen Kind of Blue.

What a tribute you gave her. :hug:

Rest in Peace, Crystal.

[Kind of Blue]

88. Thanks, Delphinus.

She's no longer suffering, there's real comfort in knowing that.:hug: back!

[Hidden Stillness]

6. Oppressed and Abused by Corporate Rule Right to the Very End

This is a huge issue--the problem of insurance corporations fucking around with deathly ill people, and denying the claim for as long as possible--and it is not being addressed by anyone, with any of these bills. There was a hearing in the House (Stupak Committee, I think) on people with cancer and other illnesses denied claimed that should have been covered, because of phony, trumped-up claims that the people had "lied" on their original medical histories. One woman with cancer had to fight for several months as her insurance cut her completely off because she did not report acne treatments from many years ago; any excuse. Then, when precious time is lost from this crap, they cannot possibly survive--where they might have if it had been treated right away--because the cancer grows.

After a hard life fighting some of the most oppressive and exploitive working conditions, with help from no one, she now has to go this way, from even more unchecked, unpunished corporate-corrupt, merciless crime. This is the real, real world. As Ted Kennedy often made the point--insurance corporations have a larger staff of lawyers whose only job is to search and search and find any excuse to deny the claim, than they do, a staff to process claims.

[NJCher]

61. this saddens me deeply

She was my hero. I read about her at a young age and fought many a political/environmental and other civic actions with inspiration from her.

What you said, Hidden Stillness:

After a hard life fighting some of the most oppressive and exploitive working conditions, with help from no one, she now has to go this way, from even more unchecked, unpunished corporate-corrupt, merciless crime.

...was enough to make me burst into tears. You nailed it, precisely.


Cher

[Brickbat]

7. Rest in well-deserved peace, sister. Thank you for your fight. DON'T MOURN, ORGANIZE!

SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

[catzies]

29. Beautiful. Welcome to DU.

:hug:

[Brickbat]

86. Thank you.

:)

[midnight]

78. Amen. I have a suggestion that is starting to get attention here at

D.U. Dennis Kucinich has a petition that can be signed to recognize health care as a civil right. If you have not seen it, go to his sight and sign it. You could also print a page off and circulate it at your next get together with family and friends.

[Raineyb]

8. What do you mean almost?

There's no almost about it.

It would be yet another horror story for our politicians to hear except they got theirs so they don't give a shit.

[xocet]

9. FYI: "Almost" is from the linked article...not from the OP....

"I said I've always been different and I wouldn't have this cancer thing
be any other way. I accept it," she said. "It has to follow my personality."

She went two months without possible life-saving medications
because her insurance wouldn't cover it, another example of
abusing the working poor, she said.

"How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would
cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,"
she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."
(http://www.crystalleesutton.com/tn_article.html)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. goddam them...this is just so wrong...

:cry: :cry: :cry:

the evil is really getting to me today, it seems.....

[wickerwoman]

13. One of my heroes. Rest in peace.

Sounds like she kept fighting the good fight right up until the end.

;(

[ShortnFiery]

14. This needs to go viral!

Then we need to snag whatever MORAL conscious is left within Sally Field and encourage her to extract herself from doing "Boniva" commercials. If we're fortunate, perhaps she may ACTUALLY help us RALLY for Single Payer health care? ... on behalf of us Average American Wage Slaves.

Although Field was already "a star" the movie "Norma Rae" endeared her to many WORKING Americans.

[Yo_Mama]

15. Very Sad To See Her Go

Thanks for posting about this. This is a woman I considered a true inspiration, and I am sorry to see her go even as I admire her spirit.

For those of you posting about the problem with insurance, I think you missed a basic point. There's nothing but experimental drugs for this one still, I think, and surgery is the standard treatment once symptoms have been detected, and these tumors are usually detected when the symptoms appear, so then off to surgery you go.

It's 2009, she was 68, and she had surgery in 2007. She must have been on Medicare when she was diagnosed, and Medicare was probably the delayer in authorizing the experimental drug.

And, as far as death panels go, exactly this is what Obama's Medicare plans include. The board that's set up in the legislation I have read would basically not fund experimental treatments such as the one she was given. That is why people are concerned. Obama's plan, as stated in his speech, is to strip money out of Medicare and use it to fund subsidies for private insurance for people who are too young to be on Medicare.

Now if everyone were moved into the Medicare system, I wouldn't be worried, because then everyone would have an incentive to make sure that Medicare continued good coverage. But if we are going to cut Medicare coverage to pay the private insurance companies, I have a feeling that Medicare will be cut back pretty heavily.

More info on this cancer in case anyone who has a close person with this diagnosis reads this story and gets unjustifiably worried. A lot of these are very calm tumors, and many people live well for a very long time. (One of my uncles had brain cancer, and this was our hope before surgery.)
http://www.braintumor.org/Meningioma/?gclid=CJyPh4jV7JwCFdFL5QodHFyDqg

[lunatica]

19. Using experimental drugs on someone who is literally dying anyway

Is how these drugs are found to be effective or not. I would do it because it might save my life, but it might also save a lot of lives. Death happens to everyone.

[Yo_Mama]

21. I agree

There are so many treatments now that emerged from experimental "not proven beneficial" treatments. Only a few decades ago childhood leukemia was a death sentence, and out of the attempts to treat it, enough knowledge was gained so that now most childhood leukemia patients are cured. Two decades ago my father died. If he had lived another ten years his life would almost certainly have been saved, because now there are treatment options that didn't exist then.

But again, this is what the current plans are trying to CURTAIL, and that's why people are concerned. And it's why I want a one-pool situation. I realize that there is no perfect system of paying for medical care, but there are some systems that are designed for unfairness. Creating a situation in which we set old people's interests directly against young people's interests, with all the lobbying money that will be present from private insurance companies, seems to me to be to be designing a situation in which the vulnerable are going to bear the brunt of it.

I am for medical reform. I agree that the private insurance companies have behaved unconscionably. At this point, I don't see how Obama's plan would make things better. It seems to me to shift much more power to private insurance companies, and it creates a federal board that is designed to deny marginal care and precisely the sort of treatment that was delayed for this woman.

Right now the private versions of Medicare that are HMO-like deny EXACTLY this sort of treatment. I have waded through over a 1000 pages of legislatese to find that the real plan is to shift all seniors to this type of treatment restriction, and I am really worried about it.

I'm from the south. My husband is Hispanic. I have seen and personally experienced discrimination in action. I have seen the easing of spirit and material circumstances that comes from ending that social system, and I have decided that I will spend the rest of my life trying to see that we don't create such situations again.

I don't think we have to worry about creating a perfect method of paying for medical costs, but I think we should be very sensitive to adopting a system in which the majority doesn't profit from denying care to the minority (which is really what we have now).

[lunatica]

22. Isn't that what Obama just said in a major speech before Congress?

He said it will be illegal to deny health care to anyone no matter what. At this point we don't know enough to make any educated pronouncements.

Maybe I'm being dense, but what is your point? It seems like you're concerned but then you seem to imply that Obama is gaming us more than the insurance companies are.

[Yo_Mama]

25. What's my point?

To think carefully about what we are doing.

I kind of think that the Dems are being gamed by the private insurance companies, to be honest. Right now. There's a long way until this is over, if I read the poll numbers correctly, which seem to show support for single payer and non-support for forced private insurance coverage.

I don't think you are dense. If I seem vague, it's because I am somewhat supportive of the current proposals and somewhat negative on current proposals.

Obama DIDN'T say it would be illegal to deny health care. He said it would be illegal for the private insurance companies to deny you INSURANCE COVERAGE. Right now, Medicare denies some treatments for some conditions it does cover, and it doesn't cover some types of conditions - and all private insurance companies deny some treatments. Obama has said very explicitly that Medicare should deny more treatment than it now allows.

This is the exact quote from his speech:
Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most. They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies – because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse.

[Jakes Progress]

28. We are being gamed, and we lost

the minute we decided to dance for the devil. Right from the beginning, we gave everything to the insurance industry when we refused to fight for single payer. Everyone says that we should settle. Well. This is what we settled for.

[catzies]

30. Yep. If you settle for what they give you, you deserve what you get.

It infuriates me that people still don't get that. :banghead:

[dotymed]

63. You are ABSOLUTELY Right

We have to fight for Single Payer Universal Health Care, if
not it's the insurance companies screwing us harder. We are
150 years behind the other countries. Health Care is a Right,
not a privilege. Obama said:"we do not want to put them
out of business." I DO. They are a parasite on every
American. We need jobs in America, not more greedy, usurious
slime.

[Quasimodem]

66. About that "experimental" drug.

One of the routine tactics private health-care insurance providers follow to deny claims and increase their profit margin, is to characterize expensive medical treatments as “Experimental.”

Crystal Lee Sutton is not the first person who may have died because private health-care insurance providers followed this cynical strategy. More good people will follow, until this practice is outlawed, and the private health-care insurance companies are regulated to ensure that the law is obeyed.

One of the contributing causes of death not listed on Mrs. Sutton’s death certificate may well be “institutionalized greed.”


R. I. P. Crystal Lee Sutton, this is someone else’s battle now.

[Hekate]

35. "Stripping money out of Medicare" is not what he has been saying. There's a give-away to the insur-

... insurance corporations -- a Republican inspired give-away, I might add -- that's what all those "Medicare supplement" policies are all about. All they have ever been about is using the retired and elderly one more time as a cash cow for the insurance giants while AT THE SAME TIME funneling tax money to those same corporations. Pretty slick deal, if you ask me -- or sick. THAT'S the corruption and waste that needs to be reformed. THAT'S where major savings to Uncle Sam are to be had.

If I have misunderstood how this all works, I am sure there will be several here only too glad to correct me, but this is how I have finally come to see "Medicare supplement insurance" and how I have been hearing what Pres Obama has been saying about where the savings are to be had.

Hekate

[BOG PERSON]

16. More like manslaughter than murder.

Still, very unfortunate news.

[berni_mccoy]

18. Manslaughter does not contain intent. I think we all know the Insurance companie's Intent.

[BOG PERSON]

20. No, we don't know if the insurance company's intent was malicious

[berni_mccoy]

23. Their intent was to profit by denying the claim. I'd call that intent with motive to kill.

[BOG PERSON]

24. I'd call that hyperbole

[Zoeisright]

43. What was it then? Benevolent?

Hardly.

[PSzymeczek]

54. I'd call denial of care

in the name of profit intent.

[Hissyspit]

17. I did not know that this post would get this quick a response. I should mention I don't know

what insurance she had. Whether it was a union or employment plan or Medicare or Medicare Advantage. Anyone with any ideas or who knows how to find out, please post. There does seem to be an "experimental drug" issue here.

Medicare Advantage Scams: http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2008/03/how-to-spot-health-scams.html

Recent Medicare reform laws have allowed more companies to sell these products, which are HMO, PPO or private-fee-for-service products.

[Nikki Stone1]

26. Thanks for this post

Evil is thriving in the insurance industry.

[nbsmom]

58. It would have to have been a Medicare Advantage plan

At 68, even if she had retired with union benefits, Medicare would be primary. Union benefits (or public agency benefits or any employer-sponsored benefits) are 'secondary', meaning that they _should_ kick in to give the retiree a 'richer' benefit. Apparently, this was not the case with this poor woman.

What's so sad is that Medicare Advantage plans were supposed to be an improvement over the old Medigap policies....but it looks like the for-profit health care companies are completely working the system to maximize their profits. It's gross. Most of the time it's a case of where the health plan continues to deny payment for 'experimental' drugs, even if they've been shown to be effective.

[joeycola]

77. Congress allowed it. Both Dems and Repugs involved.

[pleah]

27. K& R Almost?

It is murder in my book.

[glinda]

31. She was such a hero. RIP dear dear woman.

[Hekate]

32. RIP after a life so well lived. And folks, be sure the POTUS, Rachel, and Keith get to see this....

... as well as your individual Representatives and Senators.

Crystal Lee fought for us all, didn't she? Peace to her family.

Hekate

[earth mom]

33. Hey DUers! You are looking at your future.

Just as soon as the insurance companies have their "mandated" insurance in place they are going to amp up this shit all the fucking time.

The insurance companies don't want you to live-they want you to DIE.



p.s. RIP Crystal Lee your story was an inspiration to me. :cry:

[winyanstaz]

34. Insurance companies murder a lot of people..they are the real death panels in America..

They also do sneaky crap like send sick people a notice when they are in the hospital that if they don't reply within so many days...their insurance will be canceled and if the person is too sick to see it..they are S.O.L.
This happened to my husband before he died...he was in intensive care and no one noticed the notice until it was way too late.
It was also partly my fault because I let him take the bills back over as soon as he felt better without realizing how far he had deteriorated. I might have caught it if I had not allowed that even though he was insisting.
Never the less, the timing of it really pissed me off.

[PSzymeczek]

57. It's comparable to the corporations'

"peon insurance", where they insure the employees in the lower-paying positions in the most perilous jobs, naming the corporation as beneficiary, for tax-free income.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

72. "Dead peasant" policies.

Yup. Wallyworld does that a lot.

[PatrynXX]

36. That seriously sucks

One of mom's favourite movies. Bet Target is throwing a party. (extremely anti union company)

Been a deadly year

[Joanne98]

37. Insurance company CEO's should be charged with murder.

[snake in the grass]

38. saved for later

[Bluenorthwest]

41. Barack Obama says the company that refused her medicines

deserves the profit they make in this way. He says they deserve it. But he fails to explain why.

[quiet.american]

45. I'm sorry, but where exactly did he say that? nt

[quiet.american]

46. Dupe, posted in wrong place. nt

[depakid]

42. Every piece of trash "Democrat" who opposes the public option needs to read this story

Oh- and so should Obama- who happens think that these executives are "not bad people" -and want to convince everyone else that that's the case.

[Raine]

44. Death Panel = Insurance Company nt

[quiet.american]

47. What sad news. I don't understand how insurance co's can't be charged w/negligent homicide.

Maybe that would get their attention.

[OwnedByFerrets]

50. A real-life HERO Rest in Peace

[RoccoR5955]

51. K & R

Crystal should be the "poster child" of the Universal Healthcare movement.

[defendandprotect]

52. k i c k

[Ohio Joe]

55. K&R - nt

[sendero]

56. We already have death panels..

..and they are motivated by profits.

[scarface2004]

59. death panel calls it in.....

probably never saw any person...just some guy on the phone in a call center in the phillipines reading the death panel script!!

[Synnical]

60. K&R - Just has to pushed to the top again n/t

[I yet value liberty.]

62. This was the union health plan? (eom)

[Hissyspit]

64. Have no idea.

Can't find out any information over the weekend.

You are welcome to research it.

[sonias]

65. I read your diary on DK

May Crystal Lee rest in peace. She did a lot for her fellow workers here on earth. It's so sad that the U.S. didn't have better health care for her. She might have lived a lot longer.

My condolences to her family.
:cry:

Sonia

[Name removed]

67. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Contrary1]

73. Nah, women don't die here waiting for a mammogram...

They die after their insurance company denies treatment.

[laughingliberal]

75. Many private insurance companies here do not cover mammograms

And no one here falls for the RW talking points

[2Design]

68. One of my favorate films - too many people don't get how unions are important

for workers rights

[lupinella]

69. AAARRRGH!

Don't people see things like this and have some comprehension as to how horrid the current system of healthcare is?
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I live in a 'right-to-work' state and am currently holding down four jobs with no health insurance. Am more frustrated than ever when I see people who should be considered heroes by the nation ignored in life and death. Yes, I know she had the film and books written about her, but I wonder if the MSM is even covering this!
:argh:

A post-Labor Day, harumph.

[Hidden Stillness]

87. You Are the One She Fought For

Your post has really affected me, and I have been thinking about it. You are exactly the type of person she fought for, and there has been no progress at all, and only dismantling of the employment structure since. Ever since the 1980s, when they changed fair-employment laws, there have been mergers and jobs cuts and consolidations, outsourcing, benefit-and-pay-cuts, labelling "temporary" or "independant contractor" jobs that are really ordinary employees of the corporation, to cut their benefits, and overwork them. WHY do you have to work FOUR jobs--which because they are all "part-time" will have no benefits, and will never have any raises--rather than ONE good job? They have dismantled the entire work force, and only management remains--to move whereever it wants. Why bother to try to bust unions, whose educated members will fight back, when they can just re-categorize the job itself, and kill its pay and benefits? Do you know that during the late 1980s-early 1990s, I worked for Kroger's (huge supermarket chain) 40 hours a week, and was categorized as "part-time"? Overtime was not paid double, but was at regular (low) pay level.

I have been thinking about her ever since I learned of this--may she find the Heavenly Peace she has damn well earned--and I just feel as if the meaning of this, the fight for abused, poor workers, the corporate-insurance-murder of someone who can't fight back, is at the heart of everything real. This was, pardon this, another kind of Crucifixion--one we can all understand.

Your beautiful sentence: "Am more frustrated than ever when I see people who should be considered heroes by the nation ignored in life and death."

[BrklynLiberal]

70. That is sad news.....a tragedy.

[Oldtimeralso]

71. R I P Sister Crystal n/t

[Greyhound]

74. We owed her so much, and we never paid. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

80. Shit.

Now we should all pass around a petition to get Sally Fields to play the last chapter of Norma Rae's life. Someone do it quickly, since it's timely.

[tomm2thumbs]

81. SHOULD be the news on Sunday morning shows - but will it be?

[liberal N proud]

84. The Rainmaker portrayed these companies very well

John Voight's character had a comment that said it all:

What will giving a judgement of $10 million accomplish?
All insurance company premiums will spin out of reach -
- and it will lead to government controlled health coverage.
Yours is a grave responsibility.
Be wise, be careful -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rp56Zu0_0I