Lonnie was standing outside of a CVS in downtown Miami, panhandling for change. He needed $7 more, so he would buy an ice chest. "It's just bad right now," he said. But it wasn't always that way.
Two years ago, he was living up in Lake City, about an hour west of Jacksonville, and an hour south of the Georgia border. He had a house, two cars, a girlfriend, and a construction job that paid $17.50 an hour. Having worked construction myself, I can tell you that its a hard life - hard on the body - and especially hard when a man gets up into his 40's. But that didn't bother Lonnie.
Everything was fine, until he sufferred a freak accident one day at work: a beam hit him in the face, gouging his left eye. As bad as the injury was, Lonnie still figured everything would be ok. After all, he had health insurance through his job. Although he couldn't really see anything our of his left eye right after the accident, doctor's told him he could get surgery to restore his vision.
So Lonnie got surgery. But something went wrong: Everything was still a blur. Nonetheless, his doctors told him that he still had a great chance of getting his sght back in his left eye. They would have to do the surgery again. So in spite of this run of bad luck, Lonnie was still convinced that he would just press on: he'd get a second surgery, get his vision back in that eye, and go back to work.
But his health insurance company had other thoughts. Having already shelled out $30,000 for the first surgery, they were unwilling to pay for a second. For the folks who want to talk about rationing, there you go. In spite of their massive profits, health insurance companies routinely deny claims like Lonnie's for one simple reason: your health just isn't worth the cost. In spite of collecting millions of dollars worth of insurance premiums from people who never require any significant medical care, insurance companies are oh so quick to deny your claim when you really need to rely on that coverage.
For all the ridiculous talk about government-run death panels, just look at what we have right here. For all intents and purposes, Lonnie's life has been ruined by some nameless, faceless insurance company beuraucrat who decided that - in spite of a completely valid, current insurance policy - Lonnie didn't deserve a second shot at eye surgery.
So now, he's waiting to hear back about getting SSI disability benefits. And in the meantime, he's homeless. Up until last week, he was getting by selling bottled water on the street. But a Miami police officer confiscated his water cooler: Although Lonnie had a vendor's license, he'd unknowingly wandered a block too far, into a restricted zone.
Not knowing what else I could do to help, I bought him a cooler and a case of bottled water, and wished him well.