Dr. Brian Callister, who practices in Reno, Nevada, shared a disturbing trend among today’s health insurance companies in a new video provided by the Patients Rights Action Fund. In the video, Callister describes how he needed life saving therapy for two patients. He asked insurance medical directors to help cover the procedures his patients needed and they refused. They did, however, have another suggestion.
“But hey, by the way, have you considered assisted suicide?” Callister said the directors told him.
Despite what they want you to think, these companies are not your best friend, Callister insisted.
“They want to do whatever the least costly thing is,” he said. “It’s a lot cheaper to grab a couple drugs and kill you than it is to provide you life sustaining therapy.”
PRAF President J.J. Hanson, who is a terminal brain cancer patient, explained in a statement Wednesday why his group is working to defeat assisted suicide.
“With our broken health care system, assisted suicide legislation does not increase the individuals’ autonomy they already have under current law, but rather makes killing oneself the only “treatment” option to which everyone has equal access,” Hanson said. “After a state adopts pro-assisted suicide legislation, insurance companies can deny coverage to patients seeking life saving treatment. It comes down to resources for the insurance companies and government insurance providers.”
Thankfully groups like PRAF are working to protect patients’ civil rights and stop letting insurance companies make assisted suicide such a desirable option.