Several prominent cases have recently highlighted tension between the
interests of individuals and those of the broader population in gaining
access to health care resources. The care of Helga Wanglie, an elderly woman
whose family insisted on continuing life support long after she had lapsed
into a persistent vegetative state (PVS), cost approximately $750,000, the
majority of which was paid by a Medi-gap policy purchased from a health
maintenance organization (HMO). Similarly, Baby K was an anencephalic infant
whose mother, believing that all life is precious regardless of its quality,
insisted that the hospital where her daughter was born provide mechanical
ventilation, including intensive care, whenever respiratory distress
threatened her life. Over the hospital's objections, courts ruled that
aggressive care must be provided. Much of Baby K's care was covered by her
mother's HMO policy. In the 1993 case of Fox v.
HealthNet, a jury awarded $89 million to the family of a
woman whose HMO had refused, as experimental, coverage for autologous bone
marrow transplant in treating her advanced breast cancer.