Stop and read this or get a reader-type friend to read it and tell you what it says. I It's more important than you realize. I'll try to make it a good read.

Aetna Insurance is manipulating Baby Boomers to death and treating them like so much trash. 

I'm talking about our parents and grandparents, the Baby Boomers. You have a Baby Boomer relative, I'm certain. You might even be a Baby Boomer. 

Aetna, or another insurance company, could very well be manipulating your Baby Boomer to death.

Unfortunately, there is no law against it. 

After falling at home in early March, my mother quickly went downhill, losing all feeling in her feet and legs. X-rays indicated no broken bones. Though he tried, her primary care physician was unable to get her admitted into a skilled nursing facility for rehab, as Aetna refused to pay for it (even though Medicare will). Her doctor and a host of other health care professionals begged us to get Mom off Aetna and switched back to traditional Medicare, which would cover the medical care she needed. 

We agreed, and so Mom called Aetna on March 15 and was told that they would send a letter to her through the U.S. mail disenrolling her, effective April 1. According to Mom, the Aetna representative did not tell her she needed to do anything else. The letter never arrived. When April 3 (the first Monday after April 1) rolled around, we were informed by the nursing facility that had agreed to admit Mom that Aetna had NOT disenrolled her. 

She called again. This time she put the Aetna rep on speaker while I listened.  Mom told her the back story and the rep said that she could certainly send another letter through the mail. At my prodding,  Mom asked if the letter couldn’t be emailed.

"Noooo," the rep said. "We don't have that ability." Mom and I blinked at each other. The rep said she couldn't fax it or overnight it either when Mom asked, but hopefully the second letter would arrive at our house soon. When Mom was quiet for a few seconds, the rep said, "Okaaay? Thank you and have a good day." Click.

Suspicious, I went through Mom’s mail and found a form that she had received from Aetna after her first phone call. Apparently, she was supposed to fill out the form and return it to them before March 31 in order to be disenrolled and fall back into traditional Medicare. She would have received the form some time after March 15. She was not expecting a form (but a letter!), and so, distracted with health issues, didn’t recognise it when it came, making it extremely unlikely that she would be able to return it to Aetna before the deadline of March 31.  

At no time did anyone tell her to expect a form or that she needed to be aware of a deadline. They simply assured her that a letter disenrolling her was on its way. The Aetna representative Mom talked to on April 3 also refrained from saying anything about a form or the fact that the enrollment period had already ended on March 31. 

Aetna’s side-stepping, smoke and mirrors act has resulted in my mother missing the deadline to switch back over to traditional Medicare. She won’t have another opportunity until Oct. 1. In the meantime, she, my father, I, and my sibling must pay out of pocket for someone to come in as often as possible to bathe her. That's a significant cost at upwards of $18 per hour for at-home skilled nursing care. 

When that care is not available, my father has to go it alone. He must help her to the bathroom several times a day and several times a night, bring her meals and medication to her and anything else she needs to be comfortable, all while taking care of his own health (he's no a spring chicken!) and all of the household duties. They are both exhausted, and I wonder how much longer they can hold up before they both deteriorate. 

My parents, and many other seniors in the same predicament, don’t have the mental, physical or financial resources to fight Aetna on this matter.  On April 3, I watched my parents give a valiant attempt at it, but they eventually gave up and accepted that they couldn’t win the insurance fight. They simply didn’t know how to go about navigating the endless circular phone menus, the various government agencies and being put on hold for hours, not to mention the incomplete, deceptive information being given to them by representatives. 

The only other option, unless someone else stepped in, was to wait to die. 

While my brother and I have most certainly stepped in for our parents, as I'm sure you would, it occurs to me that not all seniors have someone standing in the wings ready to take up such a complicated challenge on their behalf.

Truthfully, it is daunting and not a little frightening.

Yet. How many other senior citizens has Aetna defeated in such a way? Are other insurance companies doing the same? 

How many other seniors are dying at home alone because their insurance company didn’t tell them about a deadline and sent them a form they didn’t know was coming or needed to be filled out? 

My anger and outrage far outweighs my fear in this matter. 

What is even more infuriating is that when I called Medicare on my mom’s behalf on April 3 to initiate a fraud complaint against Aetna, the Medicare representative informed me that Mom could have called them on March 15 and they would have switched her back over to traditional Medicare immediately.

She could have gotten into a nursing facility at any time after her fall with a simple phone call to Medicare. In the meantime, we've made multiple trips to the ER and doctor's office. She's in a wheelchair and none of us have vehicle fitted for such a trip. She even stayed in the hospital a couple of nights. 

Why isn’t Aetna required by law to let people know that Medicare can make that switch for them? 

I’m certain it’s a lucrative loophole for Aetna. If they don’t offer full-disclosure, they get to keep receiving those premiums and keep denying coverage until their customer quietly retreats to corner of their home to die like a defeated animal. 

Many of our Baby Boomers are unaware of just how technologically advanced the business world has become. It is a common business practice to email, overnight or fax important documents, and it can all be done without breaking HIPPA laws. When Baby Boomers left the work force, this was not the case, and so they wouldn’t question a refusal to send information like that digitally.

Digital communication confuses even some of the most adept senior citizens. I'm approaching the age of a senior citizen, and my children and grandchildren instinctively know more than I know about technology. And they know how to fool me with it, too.  

It is also quite shady for a business to side step and not provide full disclosure to clients and customers. We all know it. But it’s buyer beware in the culture of medicare supplemental insurance for seniors.

Except that the buyer, in this case, is the American taxpayer, represented by the senior citizen. We're all taxpayers, aren't we? And if we're blessed, we'll all be senior citizens one day, too. It's a "do unto others" thing, for sure.  

Our seniors are aging in a world that seems to be spinning faster and faster. They are dealing with aches, pains and illnesses, and sometimes mental issues that further complicate their abilities and shorten their tolerance for bureaucracy, infinite phone menus and confusing technology.  And many of them lack financial resources or even family to help them navigate the confusing world of medical insurance and medical care. 

They have only us to fight for them. It could just as easily be your mom, your beloved aunt, your grandmother, your father, uncle or grandfather who is being forced into a corner of their home to die alone. Or it could be you one day.

No one deserves that. 

Beyond their basic worth as human beings, their unparalleled contributions to us, our children and our nation, our seniors have also earned the right to be cared for through their simple day to day, tax-paying lives of going to work and caring for the people around them. 

They deserve to be heard and cherished. 

I strongly urge lawmakers to find and close loopholes that allow anyone to wield unjust power over our seniors during their most vulnerable time. 

Please join me by signing the  petition.