Posted on 05/12/2015 7:41:53 AM PDT by GIdget2004
To start a lively discussion of America’s health care system, let’s consider who’s responsible for saving the sight of Luis Lang.
Lang, a 49-year-old resident of Fort Mill, S.C., has bleeding in his eyes and a partially detached retina caused by diabetes.
“He will lose his eyesight if he doesn’t get care. He will go blind,” said Dr. Malcolm Edwards, the Lancaster, S.C., ophthalmologist who examined Lang.
Lang is a self-employed handyman who works with banks and the federal government on maintaining foreclosed properties. He has done well enough that his wife, Mary, hasn’t had to work. They live in a 3,300-square-foot home in the Legacy Park subdivision valued at more than $300,000.
But he has never bought insurance. Instead, he says, he prided himself on paying his own medical bills.
That worked while he and his wife were relatively healthy. But after 10 days of an unrelenting headache, Lang went to the emergency room on Feb. 25. He says he was told he’d suffered several mini-strokes. He ran up $9,000 in bills and exhausted his savings. Meanwhile, his vision worsened and he can’t work, he says.
That’s when he turned to the Affordable Care Act exchange. Lang learned two things: First, 2015 enrollment had closed earlier that month. And second, because his income has dried up, he earns too little to get a federal subsidy to buy a private policy.
Lang, a Republican, says he knew the act required him to get coverage but he chose not to do so. But he thought help would be available in an emergency. He and his wife blame President Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing a complex and flawed bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotteobserver.com ...
He rolled the dice and lost.
Sounds heartless, but that he choose not to get insurance.
I thought he couldn’t be denied insurance for having a pre-existing condition?
Sell the house! There ya go!
So the question is doe the taxpayers pay for his surgery or do the taxpayers pay for him to go on the public dole? I think it would be cheaper to pay for the surgery.
It's not complex and flawed just because you screw up.
He missed the open enrollment period.
“I thought he couldn’t be denied insurance for having a pre-existing condition?”
That’s not why he was denied.
South Carolina disagrees with you.
The thieving slime in the medical cartels who bill $800 for an asprin and $300 for a band-aid should have no problem paying for his surgery. After all, they’re stealing 1/5 of the US economy.
It really is a bad situation, but this is where standing on principle can hurt. He didn’t follow the “rules “ figuring there wouldn’t be a need.
We made a decision based on principles and now it looks like it may finally cost my husband his job of twenty years. It happens.
Oh right. And I guess hanging on for the 2016 enrollment with his eyes bleeding is not going to be an option.
Medical tourism to Mexico.
If he went on the public dole, the cost would be in the tens of thousands of dollars every single year.
But they won't spend much less money for architectural modifications to allow them to remain in their own homes.
That was my first thought as well. But a $300,000 house might not have any equity in it at all.
There are a lot of lessons in this story. One is don't buy a $300,000 house. Put some of that money into basic health insurance instead.
Beyond that, I sure hope the man can work out some sort of deal with his bank, the doctor, and the hospital. This story need not have a sad ending.
Just wait til SCOTUS rules in favor of gay marriage, and FedGov starts threatening churches with loss of 501(c)(3) status if they preach against it. I'm afraid the further we go down the rabbit hole, the more we'll all be required to either stand on principle or kneel and accept the chains of slavery. And unfortunately, the consequences for standing on principle will continue to grow. Then we'll TRULY know who the real Patriots are.
That’s the answer. Tell them to pound sand for their $9000 in trumped up ‘fees’ and go down to Mexico for the surgery, paying cash for it. Then, come back and negotiate some kind of payment plan over as many years as possible.
If he planned ahead for healthcare maybe he should've changed his diet
and taken care of himself. Smoking restricts vessels and that cannot be
helping his eyeball situation.
But after 9k he's broke and living in a 300k home?
Something is hinky with those numbers.
“He and his wife blame President Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing a complex and flawed bill.”
Sell the $300,000 house, move into cheap apartment and pay for your own damn surgery.
Then, for once in you life, see the light, and take responsibility for your lift.
You started having major health issues ten years ago when Obama was a freshman senator.
You have no one to blame but yourself.
First lesson! I try really hard to not "own" anything - home, vehicle, etc. Makes you beholden to too many people. Takes sacrifice to live like that, but in the end, it's worth it.
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