Join Lawsuit Against Obamacare, Then Go Bankrupt from Medical Expenses
OUCH! Talk about taking one for the team.
Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida resident, became the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
According to a spokesperson:
“She 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.”
First things first — why spend money on health insurance when you can spend it on an exciting high-profile lawsuit instead?
Last Fall Mary Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy. They have $4,500 in unpaid medical bills.
Jane Perkins, a health law expert in North Carolina, said:
“This is so ironic. It just shows that all Americans inevitably have a need for health care. Somebody has paid for her health care costs. And she is now among the 62% whose personal bankruptcy was attributable in part to medical bills.”
It's not nice to point out someone's personal problems just to make a political point, but...
Labels: Affordable Care Act, Jane Perkins, lawsuit against Obamacare bankrupt, Mary Brown, Obamacare
posted by Tom Harper @ 10:23 AM
10 Comments:
Selfish! That's what she is. It isn't that she does not want health insurance, she just doesn't want to pay for it. She would rather have all the rest of us pay. Kind of just like the republicans who want all the rest of us to pay for the tax cuts to their lords and masters.
I'm beginning to think that the Supreme Court is either ready to call it Unconstitutional or take apart so many parts of it, no Bipartisan Congress will fix it.
Just like in California when laws were passed requiring every driver in California to buy Insurance, people did, Insurance companies made more money and the rates still went up, I'm beginning to think when the Obama care starts rates will go through the roof, and the Insurance company will raid it like they raid Medicare now.
Erik
What Jerry said. And...there is no accounting for stupidity.
I would agree that conservatives have the Supreme Court on their side at this point in time, so I believe this is indeed a good time for them to be challenging Affordable Health Care in the Court. It won't surprise me at all if the SC cuts it down.
As for the person who was crusading against Affordable Health Care, it sounds to me like she could have really used some affordable health care. It's a disconnect of cosmic proportions.
She's lucky she's only bankrupt. The radical Right would cheer her death.
Jerry: She's a freeloader disguised as a bootstraps-pulling self-reliant freedom fighter.
jadedj: Nope, no accounting whatsoever.
Erik, Snave: There's a previous Supreme Court ruling -- I forget what the case is -- which Obama administration lawyers are preparing for when the Affordable Care Act goes to the SCOTUS. It's a ruling where Scalia's written opinion very clearly states that the federal government does indeed have this exact authority over state objections.
Like I said, I forget which case it is, but Obama's lawyers are confident that Scalia will be painted into a corner when he's presented with his previous ruling.
Fingers crossed.
Dave: LOL. Then again, the Right might think she's a heroine, a martyr who went bankrupt while Fighting for Freedom.
Yeah her and 30 million others
If the court system wasn't packed with hack judges so conservative they sqeak, any case against the Affordable Care Act with Mary Brown as exhibit A would be laughed off the docket before the stipulating could get under way.
From the White House blogFrom the White House blog:
". . . only those who are able to pay for health insurance will be responsible for obtaining it. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 1 percent of all Americans would pay a penalty for not having health insurance in 2016."
From the news story: "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."
Treading into shrink's territory, it would be interesting to hear Brown's explanation of why she considers her medical bills as some kind of separate category of bills. So much so that, in her mind, medical bills qualify for an "as well as" clause when she's angrily talking about them.
This brings us to to the obvious dishonesty of Brown saying she always paid her bills when it's a matter of public record that she ducked into bankruptcy court, leaving a hospital, clinic and doctors holding bills she did not pay, and apparently has no intention of ever paying. Maybe the reason Brown thinks of medical bills as separate from the must-pay-kind, like, say, MasterCard or a beauty parlor tab, is because she intends to let other people pay her medical bills.
As showcase complainants go, Brown should be the small-biz association lawyers' worst nightmare.
But it gets better.
"I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have."
Brown has to be a complete ignoramus. She makes the proverbial low-information voter look like a big-time Jeopardy winner. The Affordable Care Act doesn't tell people what kind of insurance they must get. It does its best to give people a range of competing choices, and says unless they just can't afford any, they must get some kind of insurance.
Duh.
The fact there are attorneys out there willing to take this crap case up through the system with Mary Brown as their prime example of the alleged injustice of the ACA tells me we've got way too many people practicing law. They're so desperate for work, they'll take anything to court, no matter how obviously and embarrassingly idiotic it is.
This Lady should really be upset that a lot of her debts were less dischargible thanks to the newer Bankruptcy law rammed through Congress by the Republicans a few years ago.
Thanks to the Conservatives that new Champion her, she still had to pay some of her debts.
Erik
SW: I'm hoping the current lead plaintiff in this lawsuit -- mentioned in the LA Times article -- also gets laughed out of the courtroom. He lives here in Port Angeles. He's a retired Wall Street millionaire who says he himself will always have enough money to pay for any medical procedures he could possibly ever need, and therefore it's an unparalleled Fascist intrusion on his freedom to make him buy health insurance. Now here's somebody the Average Joe can relate to, no?
Yes, Mary Brown always pays her bills, which is why she's $50,000 in debt.
I agree there are too many people practicing law. And it seems like the ringleaders of this lawsuit are more concerned about having a lead plaintiff who resonates with the public than with whatever legal standing their lawsuit has.
Erik: Good point. Those bankruptcy "reforms" that went in in 2005 are causing her a lot more problems than "Obamacare." But being a conservative, she won't see the irony.
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