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Turtleboy and the lovely town of Spencer kind of got off on the wrong foot. We published an article last month about how they were the perfect fit for the Summer Nationals, we made a couple wise cracks about Van Halen shirts, and the next thing you know I got people lining up at Whitco to fight us. So I wanna do that town a solid and point out a great story about some great kids at David Prouty Regional High School, and other community members, who are fighting for one of their teachers who is being denied coverage for his cancer treatment by a greedy health insurance company – Blue Cross Blue Shield.
CBS Boston: John Waage knows he’s in fight of his life. The 37-year-old music and band teacher at David Prouty High School in Spencer is battling stage three colon cancer.
“I’m an optimistic person but this has been really deflating,” Waage said.
His students say he comes to work every day with a smile on his face. “His face lights up when you come into the room, he’s excited,” student Erin Shey says.
Waage has undergone three surgeries, and several rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. Now doctors say he needs a life-saving procedure called Cytoreductive Surgery with Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal chemotherapy.
“We know that this surgery is the only option for them to achieve long term survival from their cancer,” Dr. Laura Lambert of UMass Memorial Medical Center said.
Waage received horrible news when he was denied coverage by his insurance provider, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
They call his surgery experimental, saying,”medical necessity has not been established. Your plan only provides coverage for services deemed by us to be medically necessary.”
After Waage’s appeal was denied three times, friends and family urged him to try a different tune and start a petition to get the insurance company to reverse the decision so he could have the surgery.
The petition has taken off and he’s already received more than 15,000 supporters, from students, family, friends and strangers.
“I don’t understand how an insurance company can decide who lives or dies because he needs this surgery,” student Emily Wright said.
Waage thanks his wife and all the people supporting him in his fight for this surgery.
“I like to think Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey won’t ignore 15,000 people,” Waage said.
Blue Cross sucks. I currently am employed by a company that recently eliminated Fallon Select as my provider. I used to get great customer service and the co-pays were cheap. Now it’s expensive as shit and the service sucks. To find out that they’re purposely trying to let this obviously GREAT teacher die, is the least surprising thing I’ve ever heard.
Let me start by saying that I’m not a fan of the Change.org petitions. I think they’re a waste of time and most of them are a joke. Ya see something out there you agree with, you “sign it” and then you go on with your day and nothing changes.
But with that being said, there are ways in which people can help right this wrong. I’m a firm believer in the power of public shaming. It’s gotten the city of Worcester to put cops in North High School and more recently forced the City of Worcester to back off their plan to chop down the Chandler Magnet ballfields and woods for a parking lot.
Health Insurance companies care about one thing and one thing alone – money. They get money through clients. If people are disgusted by what they see with one company they will take their business elsewhere. That’s why capitalism works. And Turtleboy Sports has the audience where we can put pressure on a company like this to do the right thing.
All you really need to read to understand what frauds these dooshnozzles are is this right here:
“We know that this surgery is the only option for them to achieve long term survival from their cancer,” Dr. Laura Lambert of UMass Memorial Medical Center said.
Waage received horrible news when he was denied coverage by his insurance provider, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
They call his surgery experimental, saying,”medical necessity has not been established. Your plan only provides coverage for services deemed by us to be medically necessary.”
A DOCTOR said the surgery is necessary. Blue Cross Blue Shield says it’s not. Gee, I wonder which one knows what they’re talking about? The doctor, who went to medical school and works at one of the best hospitals in the country? Or the insurance executive, whose primary goal is to increase their profit margins? Hmmm. Tough one.
So I encourage you to sign the petition but more importantly spread the word that Blue Cross Blue Shield wants to let a teacher die because they’re a bunch of greedy dooshnozzles.
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5 Comment(s)
Pretty disgusting when you write a blog about hating hippies this and that which by the way I largely support you get a billion comments, write a blog about a serious issue and no one’s interested. 2 comments for this vs 70 for baby gangsta
Well, this is common sense. Nobody’s going to argue that this guy needs treatment. Human garbage will argue over a stabbing at a Celtics game till the cows come home.
I really wish the best for this guy, but I’ll throw in the inevitable and obligatory: Wasn’t the ACA (aka obamacare) supposed to fix shitlord behavior like this? (among other things)
Are those JETS and METS stickers on the board behind him?????? I really want to say something sports related here but I cant so i will wait until he hopefully recovers then i will bash his sports taste…..