Stay with me through this - as it gets worse right until the end...beyond just this one woman's tragic story.
Tonight, Keith Olbermann covered a hearing in the Senate on the Federal Bankruptcy Fairness Act. Keith featured the testimony of Elizabeth Edwards, and a witness named Kerry Burns, who gave testiment to the reality of medical bankruptcy and the economic nightmare family's face, in the midst of sickness and death of a loved one. A link to the video is at the end of this post.
Kerry Burns & her husband Patrick both worked full time. They had medical insurance. And, then, there baby son became ill with cystic fibrosis. Medical bills overwhelmed them. Their son died and they were left completely financially bereft from medical bill incurred from their son't illness. Their house was foreclosed upon and they were forced to declare bankruptcy. They had to borrown 1,200 dollars to pay for the bankruptcy. They were forced to get credit counseling through a computer. It still hasn't ended for them.
If any case exposes the corporate fascist beast for all its evil, it is this one. It is hard to imagine that this could get any more tragic.... Yet, the worst part of this story goes beyond just the horror of this woman's nightmare, rather it lies with the content of this legislation for which she must fight to enact. Not so much for what it is, but for what it is NOT.
Here is the summary definition of the Federal Bankrupcy Fairness Act:
"Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2008 - Amends federal bankruptcy law to cite circumstances under which a medically distressed debtor may elect to exempt from the property of the estate in bankruptcy up to $250,000 of the debtor's aggregate interest in specified real or personal property that the debtor (or debtor's dependent) uses as a residence, in a cooperative, or in a burial plot for the debtor or a dependent.
Revises requirements for dismissal or conversion of a Chapter 7 case to prohibit the court or specified parties in interest from filing a motion to dismiss or convert to Chapter 11 or 13 if the debtor is a medically distressed debtor or an economically distressed caregiver."
That's the legislation. Now, what is written isn't a bad proposal. However, it is the wrong proposal. The real tragedy of this story is that Americans are reduced to begging Congress to providing protection from home foreclosure when they have been ruined by medical bills, and pleading to be able to be eligible to file under our FORMER bankruptcy laws for their other debt. A bill that would possibly excempt their home and if needed, the cost for a burial plot, if they need to bury a loved one (a dead infant son in the case of Kerry Burns).
That is how bad this is...That is how much they have taken. We have to beg so that we may not be entirely broken by the corporate health system. After they have taken everything from us, perhaps, we might have a home. That is not a Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act. That is a travesty.
A Real Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act would be CREATING A MEDICAL SYSTEM WHERE NO FAMILY IS BANKRUPTED BY MEDICAL BILLS
It would provide BAILOUTS for people such as Kerry Burns instead of the loanshark banks who broke the current economic system. It would offer real compensation and relief to the people devastated by the medical system, and it would be a BRIDGE measure that would provide relief until we fix the entire medical system with a single payer system that would prevent this devastation from ever falling upon another American family.
If we don't do this, it will keep happening. Over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Video link here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x391453
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