Listen To Your Health Insurance Provider

They know what's best for you. Your doctors don't know what they're talking about. And if you don't want to listen to them, best get ready to pay out of pocket.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/11/health/aetna-surgery-denied-for-girl/index.htm

For what it's worth, even if there were universal single payer health care, the end result would be the same, because the same actuaries who decide what insurance companies should cover would then be working for the government.

I may not LIKE Aetna's decision, but their rationale for denying coverage for this specific procedure is based on factual information.

Let me re-iterate, this was not a PROFIT based decision.

They actually approved the MORE effective, and MORE expensive treatment, because that treatment has a substantial history behind it and has clinical trials that have proven its effectiveness.

Sounds like she's still getting treated.

With a more invasive, more dangerous treatment because the insurance company is refusing to pay for the newer option. The thing is, the newer option is FDA approved, has been performed thousands of times with positive results, and other insurance carriers will pay for it. I think this likely IS a profit motive, and I do have experience with issues of insurance companies not paying due to it being "experimental" when it isn't.

I don't know if a single payer system would be better than this, but it certainly couldn't be worse.

I do not know the politics of the treatments. However she should be getting the more expensive and more proven treatment according to the article. I would have to go with the insurance company for the reason because they seem to be absorbing more cost for a treatment that has a proven and better success rate. Normally I hate the insurance companies, but if they are paying for it this is an opinion I am not opposed to. If they were denying her any treatment I would be outraged, but this just sounds like she wants different surgery and I don't know which side is playing politics with getting their doctors paid.

But her parents pay premiums for that insurance. Shouldn't they have a say?

The laser ablation is safer, and proven more effective with minimal risk, than the older method when it comes to her condition: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221222754.htm
The insurance company is bullshitting.

Really? Which ones? A 10 minute Google search shows that Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United, Aetna, Kaiser, and Humana all consider it to be an experimental procedure for epilepsy AND prostate cancer and do not cover it.

That was my mistake. I went back and looked at health insurance coverage for laser ablation, and had clicked on the wrong laser ablation procedure. Visualase, as you mention, is not covered by health insurance companies.