this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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For those not reading the story, which appears to be many, the company that services the implant went bankrupt. The implant was experimental. There exists no one to service it any longer. It will pose a health risk down the road without someone servicing it.
The only thing that forced her to have the implant removed is the fact that it would eventually lead to her untimely death if it remained in with no one to take care of the device.
Even if her death is guaranteed by leaving it in (and I'm not sure it is without more information), does that make it ethical to remove? Perhaps the patient would prefer a shorter life with greater quality in regards to her seizures. After all, don't we allow and accept cancer patients to forgo treatment and enjoy the time they have left?
She was advised to remove it.
I think "forced" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. People use it to refer to unpleasant decisions, like "I was forced to leave New York City after I lost my job".
Others have speculated that she may have been denied health insurance coverage unless she had it removed. That's not much of a choice when you're an old disabled woman.
In the US, you can't be denied health insurance based on your medical history. Thanks, Obama! No really, thank you.
She's Australian. They have universal healthcare, so @MadMenace's theory probably isn't the case here.
I somehow doubt elective, experimental electronic implants are classified as a "pre-existing condition."
Classify them however you want, they have nothing to do with your eligibility for health insurance.
In fact, ACA health plans must enroll anyone who wants to enroll. They cannot decline an individual renewal. A premium can only be adjusted according to age and tobacco use. And they cannot charge old people more than three times what they charge young people.
Sure, but insurance companies regularly deny claims for any reason they can find.
They can't deny claims based on anything in your previous history. They can't use your history of medical conditions, history of implants, history of drug use, history of pregnancy, history of employment, history of not wearing seat belts, history of anything.
They can say, "We won't pay for this MRI" or "We won't pay for this drug", but that would be true of everyone else on the same plan, regardless of whether they had an implant.
More typically, they say "We only pay for a certain number of MRIs per year" or "You have to get a cheap Xray instead of an expensive MRI" or "You have to try the cheap drug, if that doesn't work then you can try the expensive one" or "We need to be notified 30 days prior to getting the drug, otherwise we won't pay" or "You can only get the MRI at this other location, otherwise we won't pay".
None of this has to do with your medical history, though. They are simply annoying hoops that everyone has to jump through. And they can never, ever, say "We will pay for X only if you remove the implant, otherwise we won't pay for X". If they are paying for X for anyone else on her plan, then they have to pay for hers too.