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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miker2069
Well as the saying goes, "don't hate the playa, hate the game." This definitely was an interesting way to game the system, and it really is ridiculous that someone would rationally conclude that inmates receive better medical care than an unemployed person. Only thing is it's true
However he's assuming all his aliments will be resolved in 3 years or so so it's pretty big to trade 3 years of your freedom.
Although I'm thinking maybe he could have found a job at Starbucks (my ultimate fallback/retirement plan), work there for 20 hrs, I think and you get good health care and benefits. Plus everyone is happy at Starbucks. Or he coulda moved the Massachusetts and gotten pretty cheap health care. Don't think he thought this all the way through....
These things always remind me of the infamous Rush Limbaugh quote..."Let the elderly buy their own d*mn medication..."
I guess that you aren't aware that the highest unemployment is in the over 50 age group. Snagging a job if you don't have 2 slipped disks is next to impossible.
An entreprenuer in the making.... God bless him and I hope he finds warmth in steal bar
walls. More importantly, may he get his well deserved heath care. Takes big ones to go
this route, but it's the path tax payers and elected officials made for our society. Go for
it dude, try $500-$1000 next time.
Work at Starbucks? My wife (girlfriend at the time) had 2 degrees and when she was out of work she applied for Starbucks and they wouldn't hire her because she was over qualified.
She ended up getting sick and had to pay 5K out of pocket when she went to the emergency room and she is still paying it off 4 years later.
The system is all screwed up. Thankfully we are now fully insured.
This is by far the funnies and most disturbing story I have read in a long time.
Man robs bank to get medical care in jail - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110621/ts_yblog_thelookout/man-robs-bank-to-get-medical-care-in-jail - broken link)
Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank.
Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gastonia, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up.
He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week.
Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found new work driving a truck, but it didn't last. Eventually, he took a part-time position at the convenience store.
But Verone's body wasn't up to it. The bending and lifting made his back ache. He had problems with his left foot, making him limp. He also suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.
Then he noticed a protrusion on his chest. "The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," Verone told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."
Verone knew he needed help--and he didn't want to be a burden on his sister and brothers. He applied for food stamps, but they weren't enough either.
So he hatched a plan. On June 9, he woke up, showered, ironed his shirt. He mailed a letter to the Gazette, listing the return address as the Gaston County Jail.
"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me," Verone wrote in the letter. "This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."
Then Verone hailed a cab to take him to the RBC Bank. Inside, he handed the teller his $1 robbery demand.
"I didn't have any fears," said Verone. "I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police."
The teller was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Verone, meanwhile, was taken to jail, just as he'd planned it.
Because he only asked for $1, Verone was charged with larceny, not bank robbery. But he said that if his punishment isn't severe enough, he plans to tell the judge that he'll do it again. His $100,000 bond has been reduced to $2,000, but he says he doesn't plan to pay it.
In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with the other inmates. He's already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a doctor on Friday. 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.
"If you don't have your health you don't have anything," Verone said.
The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health-care overhaul passed by Congress last year, was designed to make it easier for Americans in situations like Verone's to get health insurance. But most of its provisions don't go into effect until 2014.
As it is, Verone said he thinks he chose the best of a bunch of bad options. "I picked jail."
No group insurance plan will cover for pre-existing conditions, so this plan doesn't work.
I have never heard od a group insurance plan that would not cover preeexisting conditions. One I was in would cover all PECs and another had a three month wait before they would cover them. Furthermore, all group coverages are required to cover PECs if you have had continuous insurance coverage without a gap of more than, I think, 60 days.
Under the new healthcare bill, starting in a few years, there will be no PEC exclusions for anyone. Of course, everyone will be required to have insurance so the question of what gaps you had becomes moot.
You realize that charity care is nothing more than a "discount"?
And your article is over a year old, so who knows where those discounts are or if they exist.
As far as your other link, I am not interested in a website from/for those who don't know what a struggle is.
It appears this man worked as a delivery guy for Coca-Cola for 17 years and was laid off. His insurance disappeared with it. He said he has tried to find work, and got several part time jobs as a truck driver, but can't find consistant work. When his savings ran out he had no choice to take the present action.
These days, the prospects of a 59 year old finding a job are very slim. This guy is no indigent and is more than willing to work to support himself. It's made global news. Hopefully some good of it will come to him.
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Man robs bank to get medical care in jail
