The California Nurses Association says insurer CIGNA has "blood on their hands." The family of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old woman who died after being initially denied payment for a liver transplant, is suing the teen's insurance company. Nataline died December 20th 2007 after her family removed her from life support. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks due to complications following a bone marrow transplant. Insurer CIGNA HealthCare had first denied a doctor-recommended liver transplant for Nataline, who suffered from leukemia, but had reversed course a day before her death in the face of mounting public pressure.

On December 11th, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline "currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1" for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA's denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan "does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services," to which the doctors replied, "Nataline's case is in fact none of the above."

"CIGNA Health Corporation literally, maliciously killed her...they conciously disregarded her life," family attorney Mike Geragos said of CIGNA. "And they did that for one specific reason: they did not want to pay for her after-care."

Read More | Mark Geragos takes the case of Nataline Sarkisyan | California Nurses Association Press Release | The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States, and the Struggle to Achieve It