Lead Plaintiff In Health Care Reform Suit Files For Bankruptcy With Medical Debt

[FarLeftFist]

The lead plaintiff in the legal case against the Affordable Care Act filed for bankruptcy after accruing nearly $5,000 in medical debt. According to the Los Angeles Times, plaintiff Mary Brown was uninsured last fall when her husband’s medical bills stacked up to $4,500. That, combined with other debt they had accumulated, led the couple to file for bankruptcy:

Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband’s. “I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills,” she said angrily. “I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone’s right to what kind of health insurance they have.

“I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control,” Brown said. “Who says I don’t have insurance right now?”

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” according to Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Link: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/09/441386/lead-plaintiff-in-health-care-reform-case-filed-bankruptcy-with-medical-debt/

[qb]

1. She doesn't want gov't involved in healthcare but she'll take gov't protection

in her bankruptcy that resulted from her foolish decision to forego health insurance.
Hypocrite.

[liberal N proud]

3. Lunacy!

[bluestate10]

12. Her debtors should gather guns and come take possessions worth their money.

The above won't happen. But if we had the society that woman wants, her creditors would come to her home and take whatever they felt was valuable enough to resell.

[kestrel91316]

2. That RW financial guru that the RWers worship, Dave Ramsey, wouldn't approve of

filing bankruptcy over any piddling $5k. Nor do I, for that matter.

If a SERIOUS medical problem comes their way after the bankruptcy and they have $250k in bills (OR MORE), they won't be able to bankrupt out of that.

[bluestate10]

13. Yep. Shot the best jumpshot with uncertainty abounding.

Will the heartless idiots that are posturing them to sue the government pay their future medical bills? Will the woman dump her medically challenged husband?

[bvar22]

4. This is what Candidate Obama said about Mandates in 2008:

Public Option & Mandates

I agree with THAT Obama.


"Medical Bankruptcy" is a term which is unknown in the Civilized World,
but will STILL be Big Business in the USA even after ALL the provisions of the Health Insurance Reform kick in.

Medical Bankruptcy may be even BIGGER Business as 40 - 70 MILLION (projected uninsured by 2014) already hard pressed Working Class Americans attempt to actually access Health "Care" with their Mandated "Bronze" (junk) Insurance policies.


To appreciate how really bad this "reform" is,
simply compare it to what the rest of the Civilized World takes for granted.
"A Uniquely American Solution" indeed.

This "historic" "reform" protected and solidified the Private For Profit Health Care Delivery System in America.
This will have to be undone before we can make it better,
and I don't see another realistic opportunity to do this for a long time,
unless Americans Rise Up in Righteous Outrage in 2014 at being forced to BUY an invisible product every year from a Very RICH Industry that:

*Manufactures NOTHING

*Provides NO service

*Produces NO Wealth (Value Added)



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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[SammyWinstonJack]

6. 2014 forced mandated private health insurance buy-ins should be interesting

with regard to public reaction.

[ProSense]

5. Typical

“I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control,” Brown said. “Who says I don’t have insurance right now?”

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” according to Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business.

...right winger.

[bvar22]

8. The MAJORITY of Medical Bankruptcies happen to people WITH Health Insurance.

""Unless you're a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you're one illness away from financial ruin in this country," says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. "If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that's the major finding in our study."

<snip>
"That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study -- 78 percent of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services," says Woolhandler. "Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance."

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-05/health/bankruptcy.medical.bills_1_medical-bills-bankruptcies-health-insurance?_s=PM:HEALTH

Does you policy cover 100% of the medical costs?
Can you cover 20% of the cost of a catastrophic illness?

Will the Mandated "Bronze" Policies in The Exchange cover 100% of all Medical Costs?

Medical Bankruptcy will STILL be Big Business in the USA after all the provisions of the "historic" Affordable Care Act are activated.

"The Uniquely American Solution".....indeed.

Even IF she could afford a Catastrophic Policy,
she would STILL go bankrupt over any serious illness.

SHE is NOT the problem.
The Private, For Profit Health Care Delivery System in the USA IS the problem,
and enshrining the parasitic Health Insurance Cartel as the Gate keepers to health care in America does NOTHING to solve this problem.


Blaming the Poor, or those that can not afford Health Insurance, IS a Right Wing position.


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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[ProSense]

11. That has

"The MAJORITY of Medical Bankruptcies happen to people WITH Health Insurance."

...nothing to do with my point.

[bvar22]

15. It has EVERYTHING to do with your post,

....AND the "reform" you support.

The junk "Insurance" within reach of the lower Working Class is near worthless,
and does very little to prevent medical bankruptcies.
You should walk a mile in their shoes before broad brushing 55 MILLION struggling Americans as Right Wingers.

For the under-employed, the unemployed, and unemployable who don't qualify for Medicaid,
it makes better economic sense to hold on to assets (home, property) than to sell them in order to buy a near worthless policy
that would bankrupt them anyway if they had an even moderate illness.

Working Class Americans struggling to survive are NOT to problem.
Our even MORE entrenched Private, For Profit Health Care Delivery System is the problem,
and it is getting worse.

Blaming those without Insurance reminds my of the old Right Winger Welfare Queen attacks.

Candidate Obama agreed with me in 2008

[ProSense]

17. No

"It has EVERYTHING to do with your post,....AND the "reform" you support. "

...it had zero to do with my post, which was

Typical

“I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control,” Brown said. “Who says I don’t have insurance right now?”

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” according to Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business.

...right winger.

Clearly, you didn't understand the point. Still, if you want to explain how calling someone a "typical right winger" relates to the health care law, I'd be happy to hear it.

You may also want to explain how your point that most medical bankruptcies are by people who have insurance has anything to do with someone declaring bankruptcy because she refused, not because she was dropped or denied, but refused, to get insurance.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Why then should I have higher premiums because of people like her?

She and her husband are going to stiff the health care provider, hospital, or doctor, who then will have to incorporate that loss into their pricing structure, passing that increased cost through my insurance provider onto me.

Why do I have to subsidize selfish people like her?

[gratuitous]

9. Really - is she on birth control?

Am I paying for her to have sex?

And you know what? The butts of this little joke will have absolutely no idea what we're talking about, or how that vile human being's rantings are applicable to them as well.

[Ikonoklast]

14. Glad to see someone got it.

Ahem.

[bvar22]

10. Spoken like a smug "I've got mine" Republican.

You should be proud.

[SomethingFishy]

16. Bankruptcy for $5000 in medical bills?

Gaming the system. First of all $5000 in medical debt is manageable. I have a lot of experience with this. As long as you are paying off the bill they can't come after you. You can pay a dollar a month and they have to let you pay at that rate.

So the truth is they filed because they don't want to pay the bill not because they can't. Just another Republican trying to avoid paying while they scream about food stamps, health care and welfare.