Plaintiff challenging healthcare law went bankrupt – with unpaid medical bills
Source: Los Angeles Times
Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.
Brown "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation's case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.
But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.
Lawyers who represent Brown dispute the significance of her bankruptcy. They say her unpaid medical bills were only a small part of her debts and did not cause her bankruptcy. They say that she and her husband owe $55,000 to others, including credit card companies. And they say her financial troubles were caused by the failure of her auto repair shop. Brown said in the bankruptcy petition that her only income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.
Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. "I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills," she said angrily. "I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.
"I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control," Brown said. "Who says I don't have insurance right now?"
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story
Who says you don't have insurance? Your lawyer, Karen Harned. Good luck getting it on $275 a month.
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babylonsister
(171,727 posts)I maintain some people are just plain dumb. 
eridani
(51,907 posts)
mlevans
(843 posts)Which, alas, health care coverage will not cure.
excuse not to write
(147 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 10, 2012, 07:10 PM - Edit history (1)
Love thy neighbor and all that.
tooeyeten
(1,074 posts)herself to be used and misled by her attorneys.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)What did she do? Have a salad in the cafeteria?
Monk06
(7,675 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 9, 2012, 06:00 PM - Edit history (1)
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Not smart, and the filing fee is $405 or so but you can.
Monk06
(7,675 posts)But the creditor can block this or any amount of debt if a reasonable repayment schedule can be arranged over five years. I guess I didn't know as much about bankruptcy as I thought
PSPS
(14,224 posts)I wager $1 that at least some of that $55K is medical-related charges.
subterranean
(3,548 posts)she would qualify for Medicaid under the new healthcare law. She wouldn't have to pay a dime.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)Unlike bankruptcy and unemployment insurance and...
Oh, wait...
KatyMan
(4,287 posts)Just because you are low income doesn't mean you qualify for Medicaid. You must be 65 and/or blind or disabled. Healthcare reform isn't about people on Medicaid....it is for the millions of Americans like this lady who do not qualify for state or federal programs. This is the perfect example of why we need reform!!!
bornskeptic
(1,330 posts)But, of course, that changes in 2014, when anyone with an income below 133% of the poverty level will be eligible.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Medicare is for 65+ (Technically 67+ now), blind or disabled.
Medicaid is for low-income people regardless of age or disability.
KatyMan
(4,287 posts)This is KatyMan's wife- a case manager RN for Medicaid. You must be either elderly and/or have a disability, plus meet income guidelines. I meant to add children are covered under TANF. You can be 65 and on both Medicare and Medicaid.
Again, it is a common misconception that just because you are low income you qualify for Medicaid benefits--- you can be as poor as dirt and still not get Medicaid if you do not have a disability.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)In many states low income is the essential thing that triggers Medicaid eligibility. Of course, many states are cutting Medicaid as fast as they can, and some states don't actually participate, meaning they pass on the Federal benefits and instead run their own program which covers hardly anyone. Arizona, at least when I lived there in the late '80s, was one state that was no longer doing Medicaid.
In my state, New Mexico, many low-income residents are on Medicaid and they are not all disabled. Many are children, however.
subterranean
(3,548 posts)Anyone who makes up to 133% of the Federal poverty level will be eligible, regardless of their age or whether they have children. This could do more to increase health care coverage than any other provision of the new law.
KatyMan
(4,287 posts)This is perhaps the most important part of healtcare reforms- People seem to forget that there are many citizens out here making 7.50 per hour, but working less than 40 hours. So they should qualify.
Selatius
(20,441 posts)
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)She could have had a catastrophic policy and paid her premium and still go bankrupt with $4500 in medical bills.
There is still very little regulation of the insurance cos. in this country. The GingrichCare we were given won't stop medical bankruptcies.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/February/23/GOP-1993-health-reform-bill.aspx
Republican '93 plan]
[font face="courier"]"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."[/font][/blockquote
"Employer-based health insurance has always been a bad idea. Your life should not depend on who you work for." -- T. McKeon
[font face="times"]"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America[/font]
"Despite the present hyperbole by its supporters, this latest effort will end up as just another failed reform effort littering the landscape of the last century." --John Geyman, M.D., Hijacked! The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform[br]
veganlush
(2,049 posts)don't know the meaning of the word socialism, and don't understand what it means, so too do many of them fail to understand what bankruptcy is. It's a taxpayer bailout. It was the founders alternative to England's debtors prison. Bain capital used taxpayers money in their schemes which involved loading up un viable companies with debt and then filing bankruptcy in order to take taxpayer money.
Narkos
(1,185 posts)
KG
(28,769 posts)insurance doesn't pay all the bills. HCR doesn't address that.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)...why hasn't her church stepped up and helped her out? Isn't that what the teapers keep harping on? That we can depend on the kindness of other good church going teapers, so we don't need all that "socialized", entitlement, evil handout stuff?
Hypocrite. She should get a job picking oranges like any other good unemployed American. Has she applied at McDonald's, yet? Practice what they preach to you, sister. Fools and liars, all of them.
Sparkly
(24,384 posts)She's not going to the hospital?
Or she is, and somehow she'll get the money to pay for it?
Or she is, but the rest of us end up paying for it?
citizen blues
(595 posts)which means everyone else in her community pays for it.
Medical bills from hospitals and clinics have gotten incredibly aggressive with sending stuff to collections. The collection agencies then harass, attach leins, etc. If the debt isn't collected, that loss is passed on to the rest of us through our medical bills.
She may have only had $4500 in actual medical bills, but how much of her mortgage and credit card debt were used to pay off other medical bills? That's a factor most don't take into consideration. The banks who hold that debt are not non-profits. They also pass those losses onto the rest of us in the form of additional fees and higher interest rates.
So we are getting hit double for her medical bills. Most have no clue the true cost of our medical system or the economic devastation it wreaks throughout our economy.
We are the international model for what a health care system should NOT be. Regardless of the problems people perceive with other health care systems, they can always say, "At least we don't have American health care."
SemperEadem
(8,053 posts)then she doesn't know how to manage her money. She doesn't understand living within her means. She doesn't get that you have to take in as much or more than you're spending in order to not be in debt. If she always paid her bills, then she wouldn't be filing bankruptcy. She's legally married to her husband, so his debt is her debt--and she's a bit too old to be acting brand new on that one.
Now, why should her debt be forgiven in a court of law?
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)pays for it anyway, yes, my friends, the consumers. Oy-vey, and people wonder why the "GOPs" are insane.
bayareaboy
(793 posts)I will bet she would pull the keys, so fast. and do a mechanic's lien even faster.
Smilo
(1,950 posts)And just who does she expect to pay for her bankruptcy?
EC
(12,287 posts)her insurance now is her government paid Medicaid.
zentrum
(9,866 posts)Take away her government paid for unemployment benefits too. Let her be truly "independent'. Let her live on tea.
That's the only way people like this can get that we're in this together and that she needs to contribute to the government safety net so that it's there when she, too, needs it.
W T F
(1,171 posts)ME!!! The taxpayer!!! WHAT A SLUT!!!!
MH1
(18,289 posts)I mean, really ....
andym
(5,745 posts)That would certainly be plausible given her family's dire financial condition.
Lucky Luciano
(11,522 posts)
NICO9000
(970 posts)Why is she taking the government dole if she's such a rugged individualist? I read this story to my wife this morning and it was stunning how stupid and stubborn this woman is. One trait all these baggers have is their utter lack of shame (and brains).
geckosfeet
(9,644 posts)
krispos42
(49,445 posts)Okay, then, she can shove that check for $4,500 under my door.
Um... make that a certified cashier's check.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Do taxpayers pay doctors for non payment?
krispos42
(49,445 posts)It's a business loss, so it gets deducted from his taxable income.
I think that's how it works.
So actually she's passing the bill to both the doctor and the government.
SunSeeker
(54,201 posts)SunSeeker
(54,201 posts)So no, you and I eat it when we pay our medical bills (or buy insurance).
mackattack
(344 posts)Because when you dont pay for your health procedures, the cost gets passed on to us.
bpj62
(1,035 posts)You look up the browns bankruptcy by logging onto the US Federal Court System. All bankruptcy filings are public.