you went to prison for medical bills. to save your life.

That is some horrible shit. And we've got one of the biggest cowards (Collins) here in Maine who, I think, deliciously squirms over this. I am glad you perservered.

My son was born premature. My employer based insurance cancelled me based on my pregnancy. They gave me a United Healthcare plan. They fought me for years on my bills. They couldn't decide if i was one person or two. I sued my employer for pregnancy discrimination and won. United Healthcare was part of the lawsuit. The whole experience changed me fundamentally. I loath United Healthcare. That was suppose to be a happy time in my life. They took that from me.

Go for it

I asked for light duty and they told me they could not because they would have to give the men light duty. They told me if I quit, they would take away my health benefits. I worked until my water broke shortly after my shift. Just found out my son has been hearing impaired since birth. It was enough to keep him from joining the Air Force. Ya, I could write a book. Had a pregnancy in the Air Force that was horrendous. I was in Saudi Arabia when I found out I was pregnant. They told me I could get stoned to death for not being married.

Trump filed BK 6 times!! How was that not an abuse of the system?

businesses, mine were just little ol me

State? Feds?

So sorry for your travail

Aren't "DEBTOR'S PRISONS" illegal???????????

He made it into an art, and called it negotiations and a smart business tactic........

If you think it's already bad, just wait for the horrors that are coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But for some reason, that isn't the crime.

Lawyers are needed..Health insurerance, not so much.

I'm sorry.

you were 29 years old! Just getting started.

I agree. Capitalism has definitely run amok in the US. Corporate media has failed the country massively due to their fealty to their own bottom line over the American people. Health insurance companies will KILL you if they can before they fix you.

Well, there's going to be a lot to see in the new year and the years following that. As a people, I hope we are ready to rise in opposition to the fascist authoritarian takeover of our country.

PS I'm happy you got away with your life! and deplore what those fucks did to you in the process.

I am tempted to refer to it as end stage. the wealth inequality is simply not sustainable.

not one person.

IMHO back in 2008 and 2012 but to no avail. The crooked insurance lobbies made sure to contribute tons of mighty dollars so they would keep their privileges to wreck the the lives of the lower classes that can barely manage to make ends meet. Sure, there's the ACA but it's not UHC, and the ACA is about to get trashed.

The richest country in the world (for a selected few who buy politicians to make sure they always own more) cannot have a fair healthcare system like all the other democracies in the western hemisphere have.

Nope. Vote for it and after decades, you're back to square zero...

After that, politicians ask themselves why voters don't care to go back to vote because they don't believe the promises are not straight out lies after decades (maybe).

Same with other portions of the globe. It isn't that those systems can't last for the long haul. It is democracy that can't survive in those systems.

i make no claim regarding how long it will take. Like a lasting peace: just because I won't see it in my lifetime doesn't mean i can't advocate for it.

The biggest monsters that I recall reigns of terror:

Hitler 12 years
Pinochet 17 years
Putin 20 years and counting
Stalin 29 years
Mao 33 years

I see a trend of sorts.

There are many, many more. I'm actually surprised at how many dictators have caused mass murders and hundreds of thousands of deaths of the very people that put them into power. And their reigns are short compared to how long America was a democracy. And they frequently died with very little reward.

Should we blame Trump for all the COVID deaths in his short resign of terror of 4 years? Over 400,000 Americans died while he was president. And the additional deaths after he tried a coupe could be blamed on him as well since he did basically nothing to stop the pandemic.

I think we should blame him for 750,000 COVID deaths out of 1.1 million. Considering his last term was only 4 years, he sure killed a lot of Americans for such a short term. I wonder what the number of dead Americans will be when he finishes this term....err....life.

The post I was replied to seemed to insinuate that wealth inequality made a system's destruction unavoidable in short order. Inequitable systems -- monarchies, feudalism, etc -- dominated mankind for the majority of its history. True self-rule is what's delicate and many times those systems degrade into a kabuki of their intended aim.

is cannibalism. They have to devour everything until it no longer exists. Stupid.

This rage is actually encouraging to me.
I knew the statistics but the lone consistent champion for single payer gets labeled radical
Now everyone is sounding like Bernie.
It took a murder?

and financially. If Biden was going to pardon anyone, he ought to pardon you.

I don't blame you for doing what you had to do to save your life.

Where did you do your time?

I started a Roman Catholic Prison Choir while there that became the model for other prisons around the nation

All prisons suck, of course, but it could be much worse. Still, I'm sorry you went through that.

I knew a guy who did 3 years at Sheridan, in the Medium next door. Were you there when they rioted and set fire to it? I think it was around that same time, early 90s.

in 2000-2001 I spentthe first 5 months at the FDC in Seattle and then 4 months in the medium and the the final 3 in the camp.

I bet that FDC SeaTac sucked a lot... Five months, damn.

I'm glad that's all behind you, and hopefully you're cancer free.

OMG........That's one of the worst stories I've heard. I'm so sorry you had to go through that...

I'm glad you're okay........

Americans need to hear what it was like before ACA. Thank you for sharing your story.

And all because the elite in this country see people like you and think, "boy, that person is going through trauma, I bet I can make a ton of money off from it."

It's sick, people like Brian thompson are sick and evil.

How do doctors and hospitals put up with it? How many people have to go bankrupt, or worse, because of a medical condition? It's more than outrageous. And only happens in the USA.

The insurance company should've been the one jailed not you. I can't even imagine what you went through -- on top of being sick -- having to deal with this.

"Pre existing condition" what a made up insurance term!
When did that term come into existence I wonder?

both physically and by the system. They get denied denied DENIED. They unfortunately often die. Everyone else is left to pick up pieces. The outrage is there but often people are burdened by their lives and their loss. It's a near perfect Con. If it weren't for the courageous survivors we would never even HEAR THEIR STORIES. So thanks for that GOPiscrap.

K&R with sadness.

Of course he had a lot of help, but he takes the hit for it.

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-prior-to-1973-it-was-illegal-in-the-US-to-profit-from-health-care

He was a Republican, of course.

I hold United directly responsible for my wife's death and the subsequent bankruptcy.

In florida

violence. I'm so sorry you went through that.

What an abomination.

Amen!

Last edited Thu Dec 5, 2024, 03:16 PM - Edit history (1)

signed by W after he was elected to a second term made a change in Chapt. 7 law that presumed all BK filing were made in “Bad Faith” . Prior to that the law presumed BK filings were filed in “Good Faith”. This is where Sen. Warren came to national attention as an academic fighting against the BK reform act. Today, many BKs filed due to medical debt, divorce, and job loss. I didn’t start doing Bks until the early 2000s so I can’t say what the law was like when you filed. Also, BK laws can be significantly different from State to State or Federal Circuit Districts as SCOTUS doesn’t decide many BK cases so the application of the BK Code can differ from state to state.

I cried reading it, the US is insanely unfair all due to the donor class.


I am so happy you survived!

Universal healthcare should be on our platform...disgraceful that is not.

fuck insurance companies and the greedy assholes that run them

Last edited Wed Dec 4, 2024, 09:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Terrible you were prosecuted. You did the right thing imo. I once talked with someone who had embezzled money to pay for his mil huge bill for cancer.

Edit to add * This is another tragic and painful example of not only that we need universal healthcare, but that healthcare costs are way too high and need to be controlled, not just pharmaceutical costs. My paternal uncle was a doctor in Canada for many years, and he was head of a hospital ward. He made a very good living but no one was ever overcharged or bankrupted because costs are controlled. He did not go into medicine to become a millionaire, but to help people. He was a great doctor and diagnostician which is the most important thing in medicine.

No one should ever have to be in the position you were in or be prosecuted for trying to save their own or someone else's life or for chronic care etc.. No one should be bankrupted or have to do what you and that other man did in desperation. It is the worst kind of exploitation to make huge un-needed profits off of people who are ill who have no choice.

IMO his obituary should include the numbers of people he killed and bankrupted.

I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t live here.

Prison for filing bankruptcy? Omg, that’s disgusting. You’re two years older than me and I remember those days when you lost a days pay, just to go to the doctor. But cancer? My gawd. I hope that judge rots in hell for that decision. You truly should seek a pardon. So glad you’re still with us. Love your username.

That is a terrible thing to have been put through. Glad to hear your life was saved💙

just to get lifesaving medical treatment.

I'm so sorry this happened to you, and I'm certain that you're far from the only one who's been victimized in that way.

I'm certainly not advocating or trying to justify anything, but it doesn't surprise me that occasionally someone gets so upset that they decide to take some kind of direct action, and that there are others who don't feel particularly bad about it when it happens.

country. I am so glad your life was saved because you sure got effed over. Disgusting.

It's a scam that society immediately decided to normalize, because capitalism. The profit motive has to apply to literally fucking everything, don't you know.

The suffering you endured is unconsionble.
Our medical system is insane! Cruel. arbitrary, sociopathic.

I almost died because I didn’t have health insurance. The medical delivery system in the US is so disgustingly fucked up. I don’t know why anyone would want to move to this country unless they’re insanely wealthy. Johnson should have negotiated insurance for all Americans not just seniors and disabled. Obama should have negotiated for healthcare for all not this ridiculous insurance fiasco. And now under the dumpster healthcare is going to get a lot more expensive and a lot harder to obtain in this country. Thank you, assholes!

Even start a petition for you.

your insurance and the legal system.

Horrific.

I am so very sorry that you have gone through this - and are still paying the price. Healthcare should NOT be a commodity, available only to those who can afford it and at the whims of the market with a primary goal of maximizing shareholder value.

Our system is beyond inhumane.

OMG. Damn gopiscrap. And 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 I am soooooooooooooooo sorry.

Pay up or die?

Third world standard there!

I didn not ut this out there to generate sympathy, but I do appreciate your kind thoughts.

I am very blest and or lucky how ever you miht consider it. I lived, my debt is fully paid and I have work that does not care if I have a felony or not. It is the kind of work that is fulfilling. I have a huge community of friends and support system. So once again, thank you, I love this online community and the very few I have met in person.

I didn not ut this out there to generate sympathy, but I do appreciate your kind thoughts.

I am very blest and or lucky how ever you miht consider it. I lived, my debt is fully paid and I have work that does not care if I have a felony or not. It is the kind of work that is fulfilling. I have a huge community of friends and support system. So once again, thank you, I love this online community and the very few I have met in person.

Glad you're still around to tell it, gopiscrap!

OMG that is horrible. You should never ever have had to go through all that but I am heartened by your recovery.

My husband’s oncologist prescribed an expensive but very effective new drug. The insurance company delayed authorization and made us jump through lots of hoops for over 4 months. He eventually got the drug, but by then my husband had become very sick and weak, and he died a few weeks later. I can’t prove that the delay made a difference, but in my heart I think it did. The anguish of the delay, as he went from being asymptomatic to dying, was torture for him & for our entire family.

I’m so glad you’re thru it but nothing about this is ok

🤬

Sedan following me to have someone inside try to get money or break my legs. My wife has probably used a few million in benefits.
So I will have a different perspective on that thought after reading your story.
I’m sorry that you went through that and as has been said elsewhere, I’m sorry that you have to see so many of the people in this country approve of what happened.
I pray that there are brighter horizons for you and you have peace in your future.

I’m so sorry you had to go through all that, gopiscrap.

I hope all the bad stuff is behind you by now (or at least close to it).

Being a multi malignancy survivor I know the very necessary treatments
that insurance will & will not cover and to what extent. Single payer is the
only reasonable solution. Just imagine what the U.S. could do with the 20%
guaranteed profit the worthless "health" insurance companies take. Here is
a link to a substack article.https://healthcareuncovered.substack.com/p/big-insurance-2023-revenues-reached

I have two sons who were diagnosed with rare diseases. My youngest was diagnosed with dematomyosits in 1991. I had an hmo at the time, it was a nightmare of delay and denials. Many times I would have to pay for his medication with credit cards and wait for reimbursement. That would take months. I wrote a lot of letters back then advocating for health care reform. Lived in California and we finally got the "fair claims act" passed. This law kept them from keeping you in the loop of denial and delay.

your will to beat both the cancer and the "system" was probably the determining factor in your survival.

Your experience is emblematic of how broken our insurance system is.

I'm so glad you survived....

What kind of sick fucking society allows that? Jesus fucking Christ! Don't tell me to watch my language! This is an absolute obscenity!

he had asthma. he visited USA years ago. he got sick on the plane. spent a few days in a nyc hospital. he did 3 weeks in nyc, dc + chicago. the last week he spent in WI. he asked to make a call to DK. time issue. he reported about his hospital stay etc. a few weeks later my aunt was [paid for the phone bill. hhis care was paid for + he even got money for the vacation time he lost. we don't demand better.

my mom was in medical records. somebody gets paid to xerox files. socialism is not communism. not that they give a shit now.

and that Trump gets that the public policy economic model of Healthcare for all proves that single payer or public Healthcare is at the same time cheaper and fairer than private Healthcare. Healthcare has a bugaboo in it that means preventive care, regular appointments and treatment of small things, saves the system money in the end. I learnt that at University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. US Healthcare per person is way more expensive than per person care in Canada or Europe by about a third.

2 years of chemotherapy every 2 weeks, so much raduation that i'm done for life, and surgery to remove the tumor which by then was softball sized.

without medicare i would be bankrupt, homeless and probably dead.

you had to go throught that

modern medicine is nothing short of miraculous, but few americans can afford it

He has gone through two surgeries and two types of radiation, last one was gamma knife. Acc is rare, with little to no research. His last radiation cost 60 grand
Thank God for Medicare I paid a little over 2 grand as his share of cost. I'm 72 and still working cause he can't. It is a daily struggle that we know he will eventually lose.

i'm also 72 and wondering what kind of job i could possibly be hired for

I have worked for the same grocery for 20 years. Its gets harder as I get older but it keeps my family feed and housed. Couldn't do that on ss alone.
I can't imagine trying to get a job at 72.

i dom't think she could have done it much longer.

take care of yourself, life FTER 70. IT HAS BEEN NICE CHATTING.

I am very sorry you had to go through that. It must have been hell..first getting ill and then being sent to prison for that.

All the very best to you..greed and hubris will destroy the world..

insurance been illegal to begin with, we would all be able to afford healthcare right now.

He lost a few patients whose companies' health care plans used UHC, but as soon as their companies changed plans, they came back to him. I don't blame him.

UHC was the ultimate worst.

it will be worst now under the dictator. He is appointing rapists, crooks and liars to his cabinet. This time he may succeed in killing the ACA. Only hope that it will take too long and come 2026, more Dems will get elected after the dicks realize they voted for a destroyer in chief.

and what you've had to process and endure - while being sick - makes me ashamed of the U.S.A.

Remember this; Health Insurance Companies add ZERO value to the service of health care. Doctors, nurses, medical administrators, custodians and x ray technicians for example add value to the services.

Health insurance people interrupt the flow of health services, and provide no direct value to the services necessary to provide health care.

Yet we enshrined the health insurance companies by guaranteeing them gov't subsidies with zero price controls, AND they can charge us on the other side too, with fees and deductibles. We are paying them from both sides, and they can raise prices at will but still to them NOT GOOD ENOUGH, oh no.

They want to take our money when we're desperate, while providing little to no care. Your story is a perfect example.

Remember this when Elon and team scream "efficiency" the government must be "efficient". It's not efficiency it's the ability to raid the treasury and not be held accountable for it.

A backward country. Why would anybody storm your borders to go there..

I don’t think of trumps cabinet as a cabinet, it’s a gang, a street gang of the worst people he could pick. Since some of the legislators are the same kind of people, they just don’t see it as bad. The American people really should put more thought into the selection of our government.

an ordeal. Hope the ACA is more affordable. I honestly believe in single payer universal health care. It boggles my mind that the richest rethugs in the House and Senate do not want good health care for everyone. Do the supporters/voters of these rethugs are so rich that they can pay for all their health care with no fear of filing for bankruptcy?

by taking us back to pre-existing conditions and annual/lifetime caps and worse ways to deny care. The MAGA movement wants people to die as evidenced by their behavior during COVID.

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

and so is capitalism

And why some are even cheering it on.

Thank you for sharing, gopiscrap.

For infinite reasons, you are a hero.

He's always said go straight Medicare.

Unfortunately, your story is a great example for him to read on the air.

What severe Hell to go through.

Awfully sorry to hear it.

Still alive, though. A lot of smart moves on your part. Bittersweet win. But still a win.