Man robs bank to receive medical care

[herbivor]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110621/ts_yblog_thelookout/man-robs-bank-to-get-medical-care-in-jail

I can't really blame the guy, given our current system. Unfortunate though.

[zxert]

He should have saved money for a rainy day. It isn't the tax payers fault he doesn't have a safety net.

This is to people who say POOR MAN! He just needs medical care!

And honestly if I was in the same situation I would do exactly this. But would not expect people to feel sorry for me.

The point is, its not up to the government to provide benefits that people should be providing to themselves.

If I'm wrong then I think Obama should sign a bill that pays someone to chew my food for me. The fact that I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself should not factor in to the decision. The money for the program should come out of everyone elses pockets.

[slammin.e28]

He said he's hoping to receive back and foot surgery, and get the protrusion on his chest treated. Then he plans to spend a few years in jail, before getting out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach.

Verone also presented the view that if the United States had a health-care system which offered people more government support, he wouldn't have had to make the choice he did.

Yeah boy! Another one cheating the system! I'd like to get free medical care and food and be able to collect social security and live on the beach so I can soak up some rays....but I'll be too busy working my ass off so I can have health insurance and be able to save up enough to retire off of, because social security will be non-existent when I'm old. But, I can rest easy knowing others are out there getting free, government provided care, and I am funding it. That really makes me feel better, really.

I'll keep dreaming of the beach until I can "retire" on all the money I've saved up, which will b worthless by then anyways, the way shit is going. I may be able to retire at 75 if I start saving now!

[regnu]

So he didn't want to "burden" his sister or other family. Instead just burden them and the rest of the tax payers?

Also I wonder if he even looked for another option, like a free clinic.

[NKRoberts]

I can't really blame the guy, given our current system. Unfortunate though.

Yeah because this guy has to be completely sane

:roll:

[NKRoberts]

So herbivor would you be ok with people going out and robbing a bank because their unemployment had run out and now they have no money?

[ak-]

Funny man. I applaud his effort/will nonetheless.

[CorvallisBMW]

As someone who worked hard their whole life only to be fired by the company they spent 17 years working for, it's not his fault he doesn't have medical insurance. And you can't 'provide for yourself' (medical insurance) at $8.50/hr part time, it's literally impossible.

Also, collecting SS is not 'cheating the system' by any stretch of the imagination. You pay in to it, you get payed back out. That's how it's supposed to work.

Funny thing is his situation doesn't exist in any other modern, industrialized nation on earth. They've all found a way to avoid this, and at a much cheaper cost mind you. Think it's cheaper to provide the guy with basic medical insurance, or pay his court fees, lawyer fees, jail costs, etc? One more example of how it's cheaper to provide basic health insurance to everyone (remember, spreading risk is the whole point if insurance, it's what it was invented to do and how it works) than to wait until a catastrophic emergency and pay 100x over.

[zxert]

As someone who worked hard their whole life only to be fired by the company they spent 17 years working for, it's not his fault he doesn't have medical insurance. And you can't 'provide for yourself' (medical insurance) at $8.50/hr part time, it's literally impossible.

Hes had his entire life to save for medical benefits. It isn't our problem. Start saving when you're a kid. That should be the message here. You never know whats going to happen.

Funny thing is his situation doesn't exist in any other modern, industrialized nation on earth. They've all found a way to avoid this, and at a much cheaper cost mind you. Think it's cheaper to provide the guy with basic medical insurance, or pay his court fees, lawyer fees, jail costs, etc? One more example of how it's cheaper to provide basic health insurance to everyone (remember, spreading risk is the whole point if insurance, it's what it was invented to do and how it works) than to wait until a catastrophic emergency and pay 100x over.

A completely flawed point of view. No offense meant towards you personally. Providing basic medical insurance to everyone in the country would be insanely expensive.

Find me one modern, industrialized nation on earth that can support health insurance for every citizen and maintain quality individualized health-care.

Capitalism and FREE MARKET principals are the only thing that can save this country.

I'll agree we have a problem. But it will never be fixed by letting the government have more control over something they already can't maintain.

What can they maintain? Any major programs? Anything?

[CorvallisBMW]

A completely flawed point of view. No offense meant towards you personally. Providing basic medical insurance to everyone in the country would be insanely expensive.

Find me one modern, industrialized nation on earth that can support health insurance for every citizen and maintain quality individualized health-care.

Sure, here you go. It's not 'insanely expensive', it's actually less expensive than what we have now, and with far better outcomes. We rank last or nearly last in all medical outcomes, infant mortality, life expectancy and disease prevention. Yet we spend more than double the next country. So much for our 'free market' being the best way to do things. See, the whole point of insurance is to spread risk; That's what it does, that's what it was invented to do. If only sick people buy insurance the cost is prohibitively high. If everyone (healthy and sick) buys insurance the risk is spread around and the cost plummets.

http://www.businesspundit.com/us-healthcare-vs-the-rest-of-the-world/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/06/01/us-healthcare-costs-sb-idUSTRE5504Z320090601

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/06/us-ranks-last-in-healthcare/

http://newswithnumbers.com/2009/07/14/health-care-us-vs-world/

The problem is that conservatives can't understand the difference between government-provided healthcare and universal healthcare. Switzerland has universal healthcare in the form of 100% private coverage. Every person is required to purchase insurance and every insurance company is required to sell it to anyone who applies. The gov't provides financial assistance for those with low income or disabilities so they can purchase their own private coverage, but otherwise is uninvolved. They also rank near the very top when it comes to medical outcomes, # of doctors/patients and $ spent/GDP. In fact, in every measurable metric, they outperform us by a huge margin.

There is a lot of 'theory' floating around in conservative circles about how to fix healthcare. But what about evidence? How do they know that a more hands-off, everyone-for-yourself approach will work better? Let's see... Africa is doing pretty well and they have zero gov't health care. So is Burma, and Sri Lanka. Haiti seems to be doing great also.

Now lets look at all those evil socialist countries and their gov't controlled systems. Germany, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Austria, Finland... ya they all suck. Nothing but poverty, disease, crippling economic depression and hopelessness.

[mrsleeve]

Vegan and darrin


You 2 guys just pack up and move to France already, you guys will fit in just fine

[NKRoberts]

As someone who worked hard their whole life only to be fired by the company they spent 17 years working for, it's not his fault he doesn't have medical insurance. And you can't 'provide for yourself' (medical insurance) at $8.50/hr part time, it's literally impossible.

what about the money he made working for those 17 years?

[agile30]

In those 17 years obviously he had bills and other priorities. Does it even say how long ago he was let go even? As someone who doesn't have insurance I know how rediculously over priced health care is without it. Just for his xrays alone for his lump would have set him back a grand or two. Somethings just need to be handled differently. Would I be planning shit like this? No. But at the same time rather than let himself get even worse condition he took action. He could have done something more serious like kill someone or even robb the bank by gunpoint or something crazy. But when you look at it that in the prison system you live off better than some on the outside.

Its like your living rich yet guilty or poor and innocent for some societies. I've worked in the slums of chicago. I've seen people abuse the system and the system abuse people. People make him seem like he's evil and all this shit when in reality all of the money he has paid on his medical taxes since he was young he's really just getting it paid back.

[joshh]

Where's my free shit that someone else gets to pay for?

[mrsleeve]

Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people- Grover Cleveland