Did the system fail this man?

[vulturesrow]

Last night I checked out this website that I was tipped off to through an email newsletter that I receive. The site is that of a young man who was suffering from cystic fibrosis. His insurance refused to cover the cost of a transplant in spite of the fact that his doctors assessed that he had about a 60 percent chance of success. The young man recently died before anything else could be done.

So the subject line reveals my question here. To me it seems borderline criminal that a young man was basically sentenced to death by his insurance company unless he could raise 400,000 dollars on his own. I realize there exist mechanisms in place for this sort of thing, including a charity that was assisting this man. And my thoughts on this dont include thinking that we should tell insurance companies what they ought and ought not to pay for. But it surely seems to me to suggest that some sort of government intervention such as aid, a grant, something ought to be used here. It is utterly senseless to me that in a country as prosperous as ours that something like this should happen.

Open fire. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]