Man Purposely Imprisoned for Life-Saving Surgery

reply to post by severdsoul


I said once and I'll say it again Hunger Games choices.

LMAO! This dude is completely retarded AT BEST!

Perhaps the tool shed shoulda went down to his local Social Services and applied for Medicaid. He could not have been denied for ANY reason, it would have been retroactive...meaning he could have waltzed into an emergency room in any hospital, gotten his surgery, and they could not have denied him.

Why then, does this tool decide that jail would be a better alternative?? And then...you folks applaud his efforts?? Now...not only are the taxpayers on the hook for his surgery anyway, we now have to pay for 13 months of housing him in jail...about $36,000/year.

I hope this guy drops the soap in jail and the inmates turn him out....he deserves nothing less for choosing jail instead of Medicaid. What a martyr...pfft.

Originally posted by Spider879
So what's the system in Australia,do citizens or laborers pay into a system through tax?? and if so does it hurt your pocket book.

Even going to the doctor costs you no more than $25 most times after you claim money back through medicare and sometimes doctors will bulk bill you which means paying nothing. I hear this happens a fair bit in the cities.

I couldn't tell you about whether there is a scheme or not but I know from experience through myself and family we have never had to pay a dime or insurance to get surgery. I'm sure the doctors have something good going with the government lol

Originally posted by DarknStormy

Originally posted by Spider879
So what's the system in Australia,do citizens or laborers pay into a system through tax?? and if so does it hurt your pocket book.

Even going to the doctor costs you no more than $25 most times after you claim money back through medicare and sometimes doctors will bulk bill you which means paying nothing. I hear this happens a fair bit in the cities.

I couldn't tell you about whether there is a scheme or not but I know from experience through myself and family we have never had to pay a dime or insurance to get surgery. I'm sure the doctors have something good going with the government lol

edit on 3-3-2013 by DarknStormy because: (no reason given)

I donno man the U.S could learn something from you guys.

He could have just learned some spanish and it would have been taken care of in short order.

Originally posted by CaptainOblivious
LMAO! This dude is completely retarded AT BEST!

Perhaps the tool shed shoulda went down to his local Social Services and applied for Medicaid. He could not have been denied for ANY reason, it would have been retroactive...meaning he could have waltzed into an emergency room in any hospital, gotten his surgery, and they could not have denied him.

Why then, does this tool decide that jail would be a better alternative?? And then...you folks applaud his efforts?? Now...not only are the taxpayers on the hook for his surgery anyway, we now have to pay for 13 months of housing him in jail...about $36,000/year.

I hope this guy drops the soap in jail and the inmates turn him out....he deserves nothing less for choosing jail instead of Medicaid. What a martyr...pfft.

When he returned for his pre-op visit, though, he was told that since he'd been released from prison, he no longer had insurance to cover the operation. He asked what he should do. They told him to figure out how to get insurance.

You are telling me that they couldn't refer him to medicare just your on ur own Bob!

I just wrote a thread about life being easier in jail. Somehow it got put into off-topic chitchat. ATS conspiracy.

This happens more then people think.

Not only did he have medicaid as an option, the guy wasn't getting a transplant, it was an emergency procedure. He could have showed up at any ER with aneurysms the size claimed in the article and wouldve been checked in imediately. You can not be denied life saving treatment at an ER, its against the law. This guy didn't engage in due diligence, he did the dumbest easiest thing he could have instead of dealing with paperwork. He could have had the surgery and applied for medicaid and it would cover 90 days retroactively froim the date of filing so I'm inclined to say that either the story is BS or this guy is a moron.

Originally posted by DarknStormy
Maybe in the USA but if that guy was to come to Australia, he would have no problems getting the surgery he needs free of charge.

Like I said .. nothing is free. SOMEONE has to pay for it. He would have gotten his surgery, but the Australian tax payers would have paid for it.

Originally posted by peter vlar
Not only did he have medicaid as an option, the guy wasn't getting a transplant, it was an emergency procedure. He could have showed up at any ER with aneurysms the size claimed in the article and wouldve been checked in imediately. You can not be denied life saving treatment at an ER, its against the law. This guy didn't engage in due diligence, he did the dumbest easiest thing he could have instead of dealing with paperwork. He could have had the surgery and applied for medicaid and it would cover 90 days retroactively froim the date of filing so I'm inclined to say that either the story is BS or this guy is a moron.

I agree, I don't believe the story is true.

this has urban myth written all over it

if only we could get rid of pre-existing conditions clauses, he could have done the right thing and just purchased a cheap HMO

now taxpayers are footing the bill

great

Originally posted by Wertdagf
Ron paul would have left him in the street to die.

We are our brothers keepers.

So did Obama. And what you guys have for medicare, even under Obama is NOT what Canada, Japan or the rest of the first world has. Not even close.

And I've heard that in some places where it gets cold, homeless will purposely get caught committing petty crimes in the fall or early winter so they'll have a place to stay with food and heat. Mostly because shelters and such in those places are inadequate. (It's primarily men that do the crimes, as shelters serve women and children first and if they're short on resources guys get shown right back out the door.)

So somebody doing something like this to get a needed surgury doesn't surprise me either.

reply to post by Unity_99


Half of your country doesnt think a magic bearded man is going to destory the world.

Dont be supprised that america is messed, we are moving forward.

Okay found it,this was another man who went to jail for healthcare,this was 2yrs ago.


A North Carolina man robbed a local store for a dollar just so he could get health care in prison, he said.

James Verone, 59, handed the teller a note demanding $1 and claimed he had a gun, ABC News reported.

He then walked away and sat down, waiting for police.

"I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police," he said, according to local television station 9News. "I wanted to make it known that this wasn't for monetary reasons, but for medical reasons."

Verone, who committed the robbery on June 9, does not plan to pay his bail, which was recently reduced to $2,000.

With little money to his name and many medical problems, including a growth on his chest, two ruptured disks and an unidentified problem with his left foot, he said the "robbery" was his last resort.

"The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," he told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."

He calculated that a non-violent crime like the bank hold-up would land him in jail, and even enable him to collect Social Security benefits upon his release.

"I'm sort of a logical person and that was my logic, what I came up with," he said.

On the day he committed the felony, Verone mailed a letter to the Gaston Gazette explaining his logic.

"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me. This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar," he wrote. "I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by DarknStormy
Maybe in the USA but if that guy was to come to Australia, he would have no problems getting the surgery he needs free of charge.

Like I said .. nothing is free. SOMEONE has to pay for it. He would have gotten his surgery, but the Australian tax payers would have paid for it.

I don't know how the government funds it etc but I know that I would rather get surgery when I need it regardless of my criminal history and not have to pay a dime for it. But if this is a national thing, everyone is entitled to it.

This is one of those "1 in a billion" parables that supposed to make the point ever so clear to even the dumbest of us. It is supposed to point out that INSURANCE is a divine right, and not health maintenance at the hands of the AMA. Take that same story and note that the private product called insurance may have denied his surgery simply because is was not live saving, or not necessary, OR, he may have died waiting for it and how does it change. Take that story and ask: wait, why does it seem that to get a AMA dude to help, HUGE sums of money are required, permission from a machine called insurance, release forms, meds from big pharma, and all predicated on a system that can simply say "no" not matter what system you think you have.

Take that same story and substitute out surgery with FOOD, "judge, I'm starving and can't get any food and need to get back into prison to eat" and low and behold the population rather then being outraged, would simply state "you made your bed now lie in it you convict."

Insurance is a product, insurance is a product coming from corporate fictions who's desire for profit mandates services not only be withheld, but denied for any grounds with termination of the use of the product be a tenant of using it. When will people ever understand that insurance is NOT live saving, it is a for profit service that prays on the strong - talks them into paying for a service the probably don't need and makes profits by denying the weak the services when needed. When you belonged to the native tribe, the services of the medicine man were part of the community process, which is very different the auctioning off the services to the highest bidder.

Sadly, folks are now trying to make a hybrid, a Frankenstein of insurance, for profit doctors, government, for profit doctors, for profit hospitals, for profit doctors, and all make it seem like it is good for the kids, the elderly, and of course the 1 in a billion prisoner. I'm not against for profit doctoring, not at all, in fact it is fine, what I am against is pitting them against people who should be responsible for almost all of their health themselves and placing the insurance people in between as the agent, the gatekeeper, the health gods.

Someone said Ron Paul would've let this man die on the street, and I tell you that if Ron was a surgeon, he would've operated on him for free. That's his view on welfare. Those that can pay will get a bill, those that don't get charity of private medical, and should not be a tax-burden on everyone else.

Ron refused medicare as a payment option for his practice, but he still treated those women, birthed their babies, pro bono, gratis, free, for the good of society but of his choice.

Lawyers take cases for free all the time. I bet if given the chance, hospitals, clinics, doctors would too. The country would take care of itself without the need of Government intervention. The best thing they could do is get the f out of the way, and offer tax incentives for those that provide charity.

US medical costs are so high because of the outrageous malpractice insurance doctors and providers have to pay.

reply to post by CaptainOblivious


Shows what little you know about the system.


sorry about one line, but there is not much more to say.