See if you follow this logic…a woman becomes the lead plaintiff in a case which argues that she should not be required to have health insurance i.e. Obamacare. Unfortunately – shortly thereafter – she falls on hard times and needs to be admitted to a hospital. But because she has no health insurance – she can’t pay for the services that she is required to receive by law (hospitals must treat sick people).
She claims bankruptcy and leaves $4,500 in unpaid medical bills effectively transferring over those costs to another person who is paying health insurance.
It’s called irony. The LA Times reports:
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.
8 Comments
I’m guessing her idol is Ayn Rand.
Ok, maybe the woman is an idiot, maybe not. Her fight for independence from a more controlling government should be respected, what followed, not so much. However, let’s not leave out ALL the facts surrounding this situation. We were promised health care (although we would be responsible for it). That did not happen. We were promised jobs. I believe that the woman and/or her husband LOST their jobs which resulted in the bankruptcy, and in her actions. So, you can focus on the hypocrisy of one woman or you can focus on promises not delivered…
Patriot1 – I don’t think she’s an idiot. I think she’s missing the entire point of a law like Obamacare.
It isn’t about hypocrisy…it IRONY. You say “we were promised healthcare”…yeah – that’s what he delivered. You say “we were promised jobs” – yeah – he’s delivering on that too. But when he took over – the country was losing 800k jobs PER MONTH. Are you saying that in February of 2009 just because Obama was elected – the country wouldn’t lose jobs? That makes no sense…as I heard someone say once “Even Superman needed a little track to stop the train” and that’s what has happened.
But let’s say that Obama has a horrible economic record (which I would disagree with)….pre-Obama presidency – this type of situation was very common. People go bankrupt from medical bills and pass that on to the rest of the people “in the system”.
So – it’s not about hypocrisy – it’s about reality. Reality is that EVERYONE needs healthcare at some point. Everyone is going to use it…and thus – everyone has a responsibility to ensure they’re doing their part.
nicely put.
I agree – VERY nicely put.
Just one note – the health care system is taking affect over a period of several years. We didn’t all get 100% immediately. A few things have already been done (children must be covered right now, for example) and the rest are scheduled over the next couple of years.
Bleating about how Obama didn’t deliver health care is just ignorance. He did it – with all you wing nuts pulling against him.
A few factual points to the story that don’t seem to make the tidbit coverage but are in the LATimes full article: She owned a auto repair shop, which went under. The cause of her small business’ failure is uncertain in the stories, so it’s a stretch to attribute it to either Obama’s policies or her own faults without more facts.
Secondly, the medical bills were her husbands, not hers, which dulls the irony just a little bit.
Thirdly, the couple filed for bankruptcy with around 55k in debt, only 4500$ of which is medical.
Personally, I agree completely with that last line in this post “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.”
It’s great to fight for independence from government. Sadly, there is a fine line between real arguments for government interference, and people using the government and then blaming it at the same time. Her family did not pay for health services it received. To protect other people from having to pay for her family, she needs to get insurance. That makes sense to me.
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