When healthcare gets personal

Saturday Post

Jan 17, 2026

Good morning and happy Saturday.

CBS Sunday Morning last week shared a story on how insurance denials do harm to both physicians and patients. One of the interviewees in the story was Traci Hurley, MD, the wife of a man I had the privilege to interview back in 2023: Dan Hurley, MD.

Dr. Hurley had rare type of cancer known as chondrosarcoma. It starts in the bones and typically requires surgery or chemotherapy to treat. One of the ways oncologists can measure if a treatment is working is by taking a PET scan before treatment starts and another following treatment and comparing the two images.

Dr. Hurley’s insurance company denied his PET scan saying it was not medically necessary. He had two options: wait out the appeals process and waste valuable treatment time or begin the treatment blind. He chose the latter.

Dr. Hurley passed away a few months after I got to speak to him.

What he experienced is not unique in the American healthcare system. As my full-time boss, Ron Howrigon, explained in the same CBS Sunday Morning segment, insurance companies make money when people do not use their product. It is unlike any other industry in the free market system.

Why am I bringing this up here? A few reasons. Firstly, as I will discuss more this evening on UP North Catholic, medical treatment is a human right. Multiple popes have expressed this including St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.

Now, in this country, anyone can receive medical care by walking into an emergency room and federal law requires a patient to be stabilized before seeking information on payment. But as a matter of justice, the physicians and hospitals who provide care ought to receive compensation for their services.

How does that work for people with means and insurance? The claim goes to the insurance company who pay a negotiated rate and the patient is responsible for the amount that he agreed to with his insurance company. How does that work when someone doesn’t have insurance or cannot pay? We still have not quite figured that issue out.

Secondly, I bring it up this issue because Dr. Dan Hurley was a brother in Christ; he was a Catholic. It was clear to me when I spoke to him in 2023, that he understood that his suffering was more than something that inflicted him. That is why he had conversations with me and others in healthcare media to raise awareness and propose reforms so that what happened to him can cease happening to others.

His sister recognized this too. Christine Jensen wrote this week in Catholic World Report:

Dealing with his own pain and suffering did not stop Dan from his constant habit of thinking of others and trying to improve their lives. Throughout his medical career, he had witnessed insurance denials and delays for patients who had consistently paid their insurance premiums. This injustice to vulnerable patients and their families lit a fire under Dan, who was determined to use his talents and gifts to fight for insurance reform.

So this week, the only two things I want to make sure I share with you are these:

Christine Jensen, Dr. Hurley’s brother, shares what she learned from her brother’s suffering - Catholic World Report
WATCH: Denied - CBS Sunday Morning

I also encourage you to pray for the repose of Dr. Hurley’s soul, for his wife and children, his family, and all those struggling to get care because they’re not sure how its going to be paid for.

red vehicle in timelapse photography — Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

This week on UP North Catholic:

Matthew shares a conversation he had with Dan Hurley, MD in 2023. They talk about his cancer diagnosis and his insurance company’s denial of a PET scan.

You can also find the show on Sundays here on PurpleCatholic.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Travelling for Thanksgiving or Christmas? Book with Expedia using this link and support the Purple Catholic.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday at Mass we will hear from Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; and John 1:29-34.

Here is a calendar for the rest of the week:

Tuesday, January 20 - Memorial of St. Fabian, pope and martyr (optional) or Memorial of St. Sebastian, martyr (optional)
Wednesday, January 21 - Memorial of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr
Thursday, January 22 - Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children*
Friday, January 23 - Memorial of St. Marianne Cope, virgin (optional)** or Memorial of St. Vincent, deacon and martyr (optional)**
Saturday, January 24 - Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor

*Mass readings may vary. Use Thursday of Week II for the Liturgy of the Hours.

**In dioceses of the United States.