The death of a California teen Nataline Sarkisyan has put question mark over the American health care system. Sarkisyan, 17, died hours after Cigna Health Care officials refused to pay the insurance money for her liver transplant. Now her family plans to sue Cigna with murder charges.

The lawyer for Sarkisyan, Mark Geragos charged that the only reason health insurers changed their minds was that they knew it was too late and they wouldn’t have to pay for it. He said he will refer the case to Los Angles district attorney for possible criminal charges against the insurer, Cigna HealthCare.

Gerogas said, “All of the doctors there unanimously agreed that she needed and should have that liver transplant. And the only entity, if you will, who said no to that in the middle of that medical decision, was some piece of garbage who decided that making a couple of dollars, or saving them a couple of dollars, was worth more than the 65% chance over six months that she would survive. ”

Sarkisyan, from Glendale, CA had been in coma for weeks after complications following a bone marrow transplant to combat leukaemia.

Her liver failed after operation and doctors referred her for an emergency transplant.

Although she was fully insured and had a matching donor, Cigna refused to pay on the grounds that her healthcare plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services. ”

Sarkisyan’s doctors at UCLA medical centre including the head of its transplant unit wrote a letter to the firm to urgently review its decision as their treatment was neither experimental nor unproven.

Sarkisyan’s family could not afford the immediate down payment of $75,000. The family, backed by nurses, relatives and Sarkisyan’s friends mounted a protest of 150 people outside Cigna’s Glendale offices.

Then a note was handed to Mrs. Sarkisyan saying Cigna had decided to reverse its decision, but it was too late. Sarkisyan's condition deteriorated, few hours later, she passed away.

“She passed away, and the insurance [company] is responsible for this, ” Mrs. Sarkisyan told the Los Angeles Daily News.