A couple of news stories in Google News and at lest one TV channel reported on the guy who robbed a bank of one dollar ($1) to get arrested and get needed medical care. Apparently he failed because he needed to rob the bank for $2000 to assure that he got medical care.
I actually think of this occasionally. Most of you are probably not old enough and/or sick enough and/or poor enough to realize that some medical care is really ridiculously expensive - and needed, because the patient has not hope of dropping dead soon and the tools for suicide are hard to come by.
I’m afraid my first reaction would be to heap unrelenting scorn on those conservatives who feel that charity and more corporate tax breaks and vouchers are the way to fix this, so I didn’t post it for debate. Honestly, its a huge issue, but the conservatives refuse to dig their heads out of sand and see that universal health care, or anything close to it, is better for the country. Things like this shouldn’t happen in America
I was reading on another board last week about someone saying they messed their hand up and couldn’t afford the hospital so it healed wrong. People from other countries posted about how bizzare a concept that was, that they wouldn’t even think of someone doing something like that.
I think most people with money have no idea how to understand how close to the bone some people live. Minimum account balances, overdraft charges? What are those? We don’t need credit card or banking reform, only irresponsible people can’t make their rent.
ETA:
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people…
This is not the first time this has happened, but dang it, I can’t find the cite. Back in the 90s, some guy committed a bank robbery–his goal was to stay in jail long enough so that when he got out he could collect social security. I don’t recall what his circumstances were; but he committed the crime peaceably, without threatening anybody, and sat down to wait for the police. The judge was really perplexed at having to sentence a guy who committed a crime, because the motive was unlike anything he’d seen before. Eventually, the judge passed sentence with the length the defendant wanted.
You will see this become more commonplace, I’m afraid. The economic pie is shrinking and it’s every person for themselves. This will be resolved, but whether by ballot box, or by bullets remains to be seen.
Wait, he had a minimum amount he needed to steal to become eligible for health care in prison? Did I read that right? So only the REALLLLY bad ones get healthcare, while the moderately bad ones are out of luck? Please elaborate…
The article linked above says that he was charged with larceny instead of bank robbery because he only asked for $1. He will receive medical attention in jail, just like any other prisoner:
The article said the judge lowered his bail from $100,000 to $2000, but he doesn’t plan to pay it. Not sure how that was taken to mean that it was necessary to steal $2000 to get health care in jail.