So let him go bankrupt. Let him pull himself up, yadda yadda.
Seriously, I’ve got people like this guy in my family. When reality comes, they need the full-on slap in the face with a dead fish before it really registers. Logic doesn’t work. Compassion doesn’t work. Cutting them loose and letting them fail works.
According to conservative dogma, by accepting donations, he will suffer a faith worse than death; dependence on handouts and infantilization that results when you receive aid you didn’t earn.
I agree with this sentiment, unfortunately. The solution to paying for treatment of serious conditions is not crowdfunding. He needs to go through the typical scenario that most people do–structured payments, liquidation of assets, and bankruptcy. By donating to his campaign, his position gets stronger. They can point to this and say “See, we don’t need Obamacare. We can pay for it this way.” Of course, it only works if there’s something unique about you which creates publicity for your campaign. If you’re just some average nobody, you’re out of luck.
If instead he ends up destitute and getting marginal care, there’s a chance some of his supporters will truly understand why we need universal care. There’s some people who don’t see a need for a solution unless it personally affects them. They’re against things like gay rights or mental health services until they have a close relative that is affected. Maybe by seeing the full effect of the current health care situation, they’ll understand why we need changes.
I want to know where you find an ICU which works for days for $30K.
Circa 1996, I spent about 18 hours from ER to ICU and the bill came to $54K.
I was self-employed and had just bought health insurance about a month before this.
Blue Shield hates me…
I spent some time in the ICU back in 2004. 6500 per day. That was after I was no longer in critical condition ( induced coma, respirator). I have no idea what that cost per day. I don’t know where i put the bill or I would look it up.
Not necessarily – if he was a career deputy who then made Sherriff that may be so if he was vested in the pension plan. In many cases one can opt out, and even if vested, people can often cash out. If OTOH he was not and he made Sherriff by getting directly elected to the post off the street, upon no longer holding the office he is just flat unemployed and at best gets COBRA coverage.
And you know what? A succesful fundraising, no matter what the commentary, will just convince him and his followers that they are right and we do NOT need UHC coverage, we can just do with voluntary charity because even evil godless commies will give to those in need.
Yup. I kinda considered donating (I’m in a donating mood today) but it wouldn’t actually help because then there’d be more justification for those who want to deny medical coverage to millions of people. It’d make me feel self-righteous while not actually helping more people. And it’s not like I know this guy personally.
But given that lots of other people go bankrupt due to health costs, it would be better to try to find them than give money to this particular stranger.
One of the links above said that he was elected twice, the last being in 1997. I suspect he either wasn’t eligible or opted out, or it was so long ago that he was Sheriff that he doesn’t get benefits now.
The alternative explanation is that he doesn’t actually need the money for direct medical costs, just for lost earnings or whatever. That would explain the low goal amount but the way the appeal is phrased makes it unlikely.
Maybe they or whoever set up the account just completely underestimated the amount they’d need to raise or decided that if you ask for a low sum you might get it, like they’re a salesman or something, where you price something low and then sell lots of units. Maybe it will even work given the publicity.
In America, you’re allowed to have an opinion even when the majority move against it. That’s cool, diversity of ideas is one of our strengths as a nation. That said, he seems to be a man of some influence. He’d make a good poster child for everything that was wrong with opposition to universal healthcare. I’d let him die of his condition or live like a pauper for the rest of his days–and deny him access to the government programs he despised when he was healthy. It would be an honorable decline because he’d be a living example of wrong-headed thinking. Maybe others could observe and rethink … no they wouldn’t. Never mind.
It blows my mind that anyone is even giving this guy a dollar. Let him blow through all of his assets and end up on the street. What do I care? And I am most definitely a bleeding heart liberal…but I am not stupid.
So many other deserving people and this dickwad is getting money.
I would donate to him only if he makes a full and public apology for his previous stance, extols the virtues of Obamacare, and pledges to go the rest of his life telling people that Obamacare is good and that people who don’t like it are idiots. Then I’d give him a dollar because fuck him, I wouldn’t believe him anyway
One who arrests you for walking down the street.
Yeah, I wen’t there.
I’d slap you with a wet salmon for that, but I don’t want to pay your doctor bills.