HEALTH INSURANCE WON'T COVER THROAT PROBLEMS OF SCREAMERS AT TOWN HALL MEETINGS
by R J Shulman
LEBANON, Pennsylvania - (PTSD News) - Lance Philpott got a surprise at his doctor's office when he was told treatment of his red inflamed larynx was not covered by his HMO. "I got caught up in all that yelling at Senator Specter at that town hall meeting on health care," Philpott said. "I came down with this painful sore throat. Now they tell me I'm not covered," Philpott told the Post Times Sun Dispatch, still holding his protest sign which read, "Health care is not a right."

Philpott is not alone. The number of throat related problems has skyrocketed ever since the loud vocal protests began at various town hall meetings about health care. "One minute I'm shouting, 'it's your own fault if you get sick,' and then my voice gives out," said Fern Biggins in a hoarse whisper. Biggins of Hamtramck, Michigan said she would sell her house if she could to pay for the throat operation she needs to repair her damaged voice box. Biggins' operation was not covered by UnitedHealthCare who had hired her to attend the town hall meetings.

Insurance companies have routinely turned down requests for treatment of throat related medical problems caused by too much yelling at town hall meetings. "Those people all have pre-existing conditions when it comes to throat problems," said Salvatore Hemphill, a senior vice president at CIGNA Health Insurance, who has rejected over 1150 such claims. "Those are people we hired to protest at those meetings because we knew they were real loudmouths and had a history of yelling at their spouses, hollering at their children and shouting at drivers who cut them off on the highway," Hemphill said. "So why should we reward them for their bad behavior, except the twenty dollars per town hall we give them. If we had to pay for their throat problems it would cut into our bottom line and a CEO might have to take a smaller bonus, and we just can't have that."

Undeterred, Randy Stump of Bristol, Virginia, who lost his voice after participating in just one town hall meeting, wrote on a piece of paper that was going to attend a town hall in Frederick, Maryland and proudly wave a sign that says, "Adolf Obama wants to take away your voice."

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