Foe of healthcare law went bankrupt — with medical bills

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Where do you get that hospitals are required to treat patients because of the health care insurance mandate?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm saying car health insurance is pointless (unless you have full coverage which is still pointless when you drive a car that is worth less than $5000)....That's why on my wife's $4000 Jeep Liberty I cancelled her insurance! As long as she doesn't get into an accident where someone is hospitalized we are good to go! Already saved well over $600 in the last 6 months....

What is the percent of people that drive uninsured??? Probably a much lower rate than in healthcare where 1 out of 6 Americans do not have coverage (+50 million).

What we are saying is it is more important to get our cars health insured than the people that drive them.

It has long been one of my suggestions that health care insurance be available in the same manner as car insurance. It is not, it is limited and restricted by states with some states having only TWO providers. If we had the competition of auto andhome insurance companies in health insurance this would all be a moot point, and NO I do not suggest using disfunctional Michigan as an example. You will also notice your car insurance does not cover tire rotation, oil changes and other routine maintenance needs, yet with health care we demand it cover everything we can possibly imagine.

As for the person in the OP, if she does not pay her bills, who will pay them? ALL of us, right? If we have Obamacare, who will pay them? ALL of us, right? What is the difference? It is what liberals want, or so I thought.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Gary and Alla

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

It has long been one of my suggestions that health care insurance be available in the same manner as car insurance. It is not, it is limited and restricted by states with some states having only TWO providers. If we had the competition of auto andhome insurance companies in health insurance this would all be a moot point, and NO I do not suggest using disfunctional Michigan as an example. You will also notice your car insurance does not cover tire rotation, oil changes and other routine maintenance needs, yet with health care we demand it cover everything we can possibly imagine.

As for the person in the OP, if she does not pay her bills, who will pay them? ALL of us, right? If we have Obamacare, who will pay them? ALL of us, right? What is the difference? It is what liberals want, or so I thought.

Ridiculously simple-minded concept of the program, but whatever.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Reporting from Washington— Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.

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," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation's case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.

But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.

The central issue before the Supreme Court is whether the government can require people to buy health insurance. Under the law, those who fail to buy insurance after 2014 could face a fine of up to $700.

The business federation, along with other critics of the law, calls the insurance mandate a "threat to individual liberty" that violates the Constitution.

Obama administration lawyers argue that the requirement is justified because everyone, sooner or later, needs healthcare. Those who fail to have insurance are at high risk of running up bills they cannot pay, sticking the rest of society with the cost, they argue. Brown's situation, they say, is a perfect example of exactly that kind of "uncompensated care that will ultimately be paid by others."

"This is so ironic," Jane Perkins, a health law expert in North Carolina, said of Brown's situation. "It just shows that all Americans inevitably have a need for healthcare. Somebody has paid for her healthcare costs. And she is now among the 62% whose personal bankruptcy was attributable in part to medical bills."

Lawyers who represent Brown dispute the significance of her bankruptcy. They say her unpaid medical bills were only a small part of her debts and did not cause her bankruptcy. They say that she and her husband owe $55,000 to others, including credit card companies. And they say her financial troubles were caused by the failure of her auto repair shop.

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's problems are not likely to affect the outcome in the high court. In January, the business group told the court it had found two new plaintiffs who could take Brown's place. But Brown played a crucial role in the case reaching the Supreme Court.

"There was time pressure" to find a plaintiff for the case, Harned said. "And candidly, it is not as easy as it sounds" to find someone. She recalls that Brown was outspoken and stepped forward as a volunteer. The lawyers found a second plaintiff in Kaj Ahlburg, a retired New York investment banker living in Port Angeles, Wash.

But when U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson declared the mandate unconstitutional in January 2011, he pointed to Mary Brown's complaint. "She is a small-business owner" who "does not believe the cost of health insurance is a wise or acceptable use of her resources," he said.

In August, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed. Florida and 25 other states were suing, but they needed an individual to contest the mandate. "Mary Brown has standing to challenge the individual mandate," the judges said, and "as long as at least one plaintiff has standing to raise" the claim, the court can rule. The Obama administration appealed, and the Supreme Court said in November it would decide the constitutional challenge.

But by then, Brown's small auto repair shop near Panama City, Fla., had closed, and she and her husband had filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. Brown said in the petition that her only income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.

Her bankruptcy came to light in December, when a Wall Street Journal reporter interviewed her about her role in the historic case. In a video interview, Brown said freedom from government was the issue. "I'm not fighting just for me," she said. "It's my choice to have healthcare, not theirs."

Shortly afterward, lawyers for the National Federation of Independent Business informed the court of Brown's troubles, and sent along a copy of her bankruptcy filing.

The couple owed $2,140 to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, $610 to Bay Medical Physicians, $835 to an eye doctor in Alabama and $900 to a specialist in Mississippi.

"This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year," said Christa Hild, a spokeswoman for the hospital center. "If it's a bad debt, we have to absorb it."

The business group's lawyers say they weren't backing away from their bankrupt plaintiff. "She wants to continue in the case. And as long as she doesn't want healthcare, she qualifies as a plaintiff in our mind," Harned said.

http://www.latimes.c...0,6657163.story

Mary Brown should shut her yap and stick to what she knows best.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Last years jump in premiums due to the new health care law was huge.

Odd, my premiums went down.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Ridiculously simple-minded concept of the program, but whatever.

Whatever indeed. The goal of national health systems is for everyone to chip in and cover everyone else. But when someone does just that, there is all sorts of screaming and outrage from the people that want socialized healthcare. No different than the people that freak out over unemployeds collecting UI when they have supported extending it to 99 weeks.

Fortunately our state opted out of this OBamacareless plan for a single payer plan. Good luck to the rest of you. Also, you know Obamacareless is going to be struck down by the SCOTUS, right?

[james&olya 1,121]

Thank God mine subsidizes it. Last years jump in premiums due to the new health care law was huge. That was a nice tax BTW.

Yeah, the insurance company is no longer allowed to dump your sorry #### when you develop a problem that might make them pay out in a serious way. So they charge you more! Might as well call it a tax and blame Obama! If you bothered to think it through and recognize reality maybe we could have an intelligent discussion. No, the tea party would prefer hysterical talk about death panels instead!

[james&olya 1,121]

Where do you get that hospitals are required to treat patients because of the health care insurance mandate?

As you may know, and many people have a vague understanding, hospitals have long been required to give health care away for free to anyone needing emergency care without the means to pay for it. This is based on the fact that virtually all hospitals accept federal funding in a variety of ways. If a hospital were to completely shun all federal money than those mandates presumably do not apply. This is not the same as saying everyone gets free care. Far from it, hospitals can go after everything you own and often do if you don't pay your bills. And getting 'free' emergency care is hardly the same as comprehensive health care. It will not pay for a large amount of critically needed care, including the medications you may need to be on, chemotherapy or radiation for your cancer, most surgeries, etc.

For anybody opposed to Obamacare or to its more logical (and more popular for progressives) alternative, 'single-payer' (like medicare is for people over 65) you better hope to always remain relatively healthy. Without the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) the insurance companies were allowed in many situations to dump you after you became a higher risk for them! They don't care about your problems, only about making money for the stock-holders!

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Whatever indeed. The goal of national health systems is for everyone to chip in and cover everyone else. But when someone does just that, there is all sorts of screaming and outrage from the people that want socialized healthcare. No different than the people that freak out over unemployeds collecting UI when they have supported extending it to 99 weeks.

Fortunately our state opted out of this OBamacareless plan for a single payer plan. Good luck to the rest of you. Also, you know Obamacareless is going to be struck down by the SCOTUS, right?

Providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare might come in to play. Universal healthcare only works when everyone pulls together but deadbeats are always a problem, which is where the death squads fit in.