Well, as Alanis Morrisette might say "Isn't that just Ironical" or something?
Mary Brown of Panama City, FL, a plaintiffs in the one of the outstanding suits against the Affordable Care Act, apparently Can't Afford Her Healthcare and is filing for Bankruptcy.
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 then again, can she really pay - or is she just gaming the system to avoid paying?
Now, I happen to know something about Bankruptcies having filed my own Chapter 11 Paperwork in Federal Court - by myself - in 2000 as my own IT consulting business collapsed at the end of the Y2K/Dot.Com boom and bust. I also know something about not having Healthcare and having to rely on County Emergency Rooms and other systems because I haven't had Health Insurance since a few months after 9/11 when the Web Development Firm I was then working for lost a major client with the collapse of Tower II. It landed on them.
Yes, if you're checking along at home, that's 11 years and counting.
My wife has several chronic conditions, including breaking her back in a fall about two months after my COBRA expired in 2001 since then we've been on State/County Aid (but not Medicaid) - which generally speaking Sucks - but has saved her life several times, including when her Gall Bladder nearly ruptured (2002), and another time with a particularly virulent attack of Diverticulitis (2009).
I know how the system works, so lets deconstruct this shall we?
Now, technically having Mrs Brown drop out of the suit won't change anything as there are other "volunteers" waiting in the wings to take her place.
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.
So if Brown drops out, there are more waiting in the wings. Peachy. No triumphant snoopy dance of victory for our side.
Yet the first thing that comes to my mind is - even if Brown doesn't want to pay for Health Care, can't she just do what my wife has done? Qualify for County supported services?
Just how much does she owe anyway? Well, according to Court Records, the bills actually belong to her husband, not her. And they aren't all that massive.
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.
I wondered how someone would run up such bills in Panama City FL, assuming it's not exactly like here in California - so I called up Bay Medical Center, which is a Non-Profit Charity Hospital that takes in
zero tax dollars - and talked to their OR Receptionist and then Registration Dept to ask "What would happen if someone walked in and had a chronic condition, like say, a malfunctioning kidney - but didn't have Insurance?"
"We would Bill them." The nice lady with the slight southern accent on the phone said.
"And what if they couldn't afford to pay?"
"Well we would give them one of our Charity Applications, have them fill it out, then give them an appointment with a financial counselor"
"So, basically if they have the money they would get a bill, but if they didn't - the Hospital would find some other way, charity etc, to pay for it?"
"Yeah".
Which leads me to the thought that Mrs. Brown actually probably did have the $4.5K to pay her bill because otherwise it would have been covered by their charity donors - who according their website provided Bay Medical with "$30 million in charity and uncompensated care in 2007 alone" - but instead she just didn't want to give it to them even though her Husband apparently needed the care.
Such gratitude.
This woman and her husband either didn't try, or else Failed to Qualify as a "Charity Cases" at a Charity Hospital. (Or of course they may have maxed out the available Charity monies/Insurance available, but I'll get to that issue later on...)
Whatever happened to "Personal Responsibility" in Right-Wing world anyway? Tsk.
Let me also point something out. If the Browns weren't able to qualify for Charity Aid at a Charity Hospital - the Individual Mandate wouldn't apply to them anyway and they wouldn't have any standing to file the suit in the first place.
Persons who can't find affordable Health Insurance are Exempt from the Mandate.
Under the Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, you must be enrolled in a health insurance plan that meets basic minimum standards. If you aren't, you may be required to pay an assessment. You won't have to pay an assessment if you have very low income and coverage is unaffordable to you, or for other reasons including your religious beliefs. You can also apply for a waiver asking not to pay an assessment if you don't qualify automatically.
If you already have insurance, even insurance that sucks, you aren't subject to the mandate. If you have Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, Employer Based Insurance, your own Individual Insurance or VA Care, the mandate
doesn't apply to you.
It only applies if you choose not to have Insurance when you actually have the funds to afford it. You may choose to use those services or not, but when you do you refuse to pay for them, even when you can. Like Mrs. Brown and her Husband.
What do you call someone like that? If I were Rush Limbaugh I'd call them a "Dead Beat", but fortunately I rather not descend to that level. Well, not yet. Lets wait before we consider taking a Freeway to there.
Supposedly though, these Bills aren't the reason she's filing for Bankruptcy, that reportedly stems from the failure of her business. But is there a connection between the two?
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.
Now, with a struggling and eventually failing business, it's possible and quite logical to assume that the Browns simply made a
business decision to not pay these bills because they were trying to keep their business afloat.
Strategic, but Is that their "Right"? Desperate times and all that, plus over $50K in Credit Card Debt is significant. It could be Bill Triage. Picking and choosing who gets paid on time, who gets paid late and who doesn't get paid at all because there simply isn't enough to go around. If you've ever been in real hard financial times, you know what I mean. Maybe they were using the Cards to keep the lights on? A means to an end, robbing Peter to pay Paul, then making charities and/or the Public make up the difference? Hmmm....
While you're chewing on that here's another thought, as owners of a business, the Browns would probably normally get their Healthcare by buying it for their business. So if they don't have Healthcare, neither do any of their employees, which would mean they're could be in violation of the already existing Employer Mandate. That is unless they have fewer than 50 Employees, in which case they are yet again Except From the That Mandate.
Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from new employer responsibility policies. They don’t have to pay an assessment if their employees get tax credits through an Exchange.
A lot of small struggling business simply can't afford to purchase Health Care. I could see how a small business owner might object to being
required to buy insurance they can't afford (Not that they would be forced in actuality, or that they couldn't afford it, as I've shown they probably could - but I get the objection).
But here's the thing about Small Business, particular those who may be struggling with increasing Healthcare Costs for their Employees - the Affordable Care Act Helps them pay for it.
If you have up to 25 employees, pay average annual wages below $50,000, and provide health insurance, you may qualify for a small business tax credit of up to 35% (up to 25% for non-profits) to offset the cost of your insurance. This will bring down the cost of providing insurance.
That is already in effect right now. Small Companies get 35% Off on their Health Insurance Costs, and in 2014
That Goes Up to 50%.
Here's yet another thing, Mrs. Brown is 56 years-old, the same age as my wife, and it's likely her Husband is close to that same age. Well, they can get Early Retirement Benefits through the ACA as Business Owners.
Under the health care law, employer-based plans that provide health insurance to retirees ages 55-64 can now get financial help through the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. This program is designed to lower the cost of premiums for all employees and reduce employer health costs.
In closing, let me just consider that I might be wrong about all this. I haven't called her directly, so how would I know? I just tried to make sense of what I can find out on my own. Mrs. Brown could even actually have insurance as she alludes to in the LA Times article.
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?"
Uh what? Ok, fine I'll bite. If the Browns actually DO have insurance, despite what everyone else in the article says, then these bills were seeing may be the result of co-pays, deductibles or having had coverage denied, like
Rick Santorum's daughter Bella by a pre-existing condition, the Affordable Care Act has something for that too.
A Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) provides new coverage options to individuals who have been uninsured for at least six months because of a pre-existing condition.
This is in addition to
Lifetime and Annual Limits to out of pocket cost by the insured.
When my wife had her emergency gall bladder removal, she had the presence of mind - even while spitting up green bile in the ambulance - to request to be taken to UC Davis Medical Center across town which is county supported, instead of the private Kaiser Hospital which was literally down the street. In the end the cost of her procedure that night came to about $70,000, far more than all of the Brown's outstanding bills combined. If we'd gone to Kaiser, we'd still be on the hook for that. That ride was worth it. I have no qualms about having used tax payer services this way - That's what they're For. My wife and I have paid into that system for over 50 years combined. We invested in it to be there when we need it or when others need. Not taking anything away from Charity, but this isn't that. It's our money, our investment, from when we were living in relative plenty helping us in our time of need and I for one am grateful for it, even when it sucks sometimes. I'd be a widower without it.
But apparently the Browns want nothing to do with any of this and would - if they could - effectively deny all of these types of benefits to everyone else with this lawsuit. Charming.
All of this leaves us with just one thing. Personal Choice. Personal Freedom vs the Power of the Government to have you make a choice you don't want make, to purchase a product That You Can Afford even when you simply don't want pay for it.
Is it wrong to object to being made to buy something?
Can the Government even do that when it's "Never Been Done Before"? (Notwithstanding the cold hard facts that the States Do it with Insurance all the time, the SCOTUS first ruled the Federal Government could regulate insurance almost 60 years ago, President George Washington did it when he mandated that every able-bodied male between 18 and 45 had to Purchase a Musket, and President James Adams mandated that every Sea Captain provide Health Insurance for all his Seamen)
Yes, the Government has the power to do this, it's done it before and it may do it again. But should they?
Which all comes back to the essential question doesn't it? Even if the Browns choose not to purchase Health Insurance - they are still using Health Services - and in the end someone is paying for it. Be that Charity or Tax Payers, that someone is "Us". All of us.
So yet again as Limbaugh might argue in his own twisted way, if we're ultimately on the Hook for the BILL don't we get to ask that as many people as possible - WHO CAN AFFORD IT - should also be paying their own fair share when they can directly, until they simply can't and need the help the rest of us can provide?
If they don't, the simple truth is - through charity or taxes - the rest of us are still paying for them indirectly, aren't we? Wasn't that his point? Well then, meet the "Dead Beat" Browns, poster parents for Right-Wing "Freedom". The Freedom to be a " Freeloader" on what can you afford to give back to Charity when they help you out, but you simply won't do it.
And I do wonder, although it's impossible to tell, if they weren't ideologically deluded against Health Care Reform, could some or all of these ACA benefits combined have helped the Brown's avoid their Bankruptcy completely?
Hmm...
Gee, if only we had - whaddayacallem? - "Reporters" in this Country who could investigate and ask these questions or a "Media" that would inform us of the answers. Wouldn't that be something?
Vyan