The “Golgotha” of Areti and thousands of Americans with insurance companies – Patients left hanging because treatments are not covered

Areti Tsoukalas, daughter of Lefteris Tsoukalas, a professor of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University in the United States, was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago at the age of just 23. She quickly discovered that, beyond battling for her life, she also had to fight her insurance company to cover the exorbitant costs of her treatment. Despite having a solid health insurance plan, the insurer demanded $13,000 per month to cover one of her chemotherapy drugs.

Now 26 years old, Areti is one of approximately 200 CNN readers who shared their experiences with U.S. health insurance companies shortly after the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of the insurance company UnitedHealthcare, in Manhattan last week. The murder brought renewed attention to the repeated instances where companies, even with so-called “good” plans, refuse to cover (often very high) costs, leaving patients to grapple with crippling debt. Frequently, this battle becomes a barrier to their treatment.

As Areti describes to CNN, her insurance company demanded $13,000 per month (approximately €12,400) for the drug she needed for her therapy:

The cost was unbearable for Areti, who had just completed her studies. As a result, she was forced to delay treatment for three months until she finally obtained the drug with the help of the pharmaceutical company that produces it.

As she told the U.S. network, “No one should have to fight both cancer and the insurance companies at the same time. It’s a brutal system. We live in a country where people are truly kicked when they are at their most vulnerable, physically and emotionally.”

Today, Areti Tsoukalas is doing better – her cancer has receded – but she is neither the first nor the last patient in the United States fighting this dual battle.

The issue came tragically into focus following the murder of Brian Thompson. Luigi Mangione, who was arrested for the crime, also reportedly had a poor opinion of the system, shaped to a large extent by personal experiences, as he had undergone back surgeries.

Readers who contacted CNN to share their experiences described delays, refusals to pay, inexplicable charges, high costs, and frustrating struggles to seek justice. (However, some also recounted positive experiences.)

The majority of Americans, CNN notes, have faced at least one problem with health insurance in the past year, according to a 2023 survey. Nevertheless, eight out of ten rate their insurance as “excellent” or “good,” the same survey found.

Many people have no choice but to follow the treatment their doctors recommend, even if the insurance company refuses to cover it, leaving them with enormous debts. Around 41% of Americans reported having debt from medical or dental treatments in a 2022 survey. Overall, the “mountain” of medical debt reaches $220 billion, roughly equivalent to the GDP of Greece.

A 70-year-old woman, after undergoing back surgery, needed rehabilitation at a care facility because it would not have been safe for her to be home alone. Midway through her recovery, the insurance company decided it would no longer pay. The result: the woman was left with $14,000 in debt that she cannot afford to pay, despite having a good insurance plan. She is now considering filing for bankruptcy, even though the company, as she points out, is making millions.

In some cases, insurance companies’ actions even endanger their clients’ lives.

Forty-three-year-old Isaac Rosenbloom told CNN that his insurance company will not approve an MRI of his lungs to determine whether suspicious findings from an appendicitis-related X-ray indicate cancer. He plans to appeal the decision but doesn’t believe anything will change.

“Do I have to start coughing up blood, let the cancer reach stage 3 before the insurance company will act – by which point it will be untreatable?” he asks.

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