Vic Chesnutt was worried about how to pay for medical bills before suicide

[Thickasabrick]

I had read earlier about him committing suicide but I caught this little blip in the LA Times write-up and it just breaks my heart.

In recent interviews he contemplated the challenges he faced as a wheelchair-bound paraplegic with inadequate health insurance and mounting medical bills.

"I'm not too eloquent talking about these things," Chesnutt told The Times earlier this month. "I was making payments, but I can't anymore and I really have no idea what I'm going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can't afford."

http://www.latimes.com/td-chestnutt,0,1789538.storylink

[amborin]

1. Afghan War Costs = $57,000 per minute .....but no $ for health care

http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/afghan-war-costs-5707760-minute

[amborin]

2. the Real Public Option: Congress' Private Medical Clinic:

.....Congress are busy protecting us from the inefficiency and danger of government-run health care, they're receiving top-notch taxpayer funded health care—seemingly without complaint.

The LA Times recently detailed the benefits: A choice of 10 insurance plans and access to a wide network of doctors and HMOs.

Plus, they "get special treatment at Washington's federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers."

ABC News has more on that in-house clinic for lawmakers, officially known as the Office of the Attending Physician:

Services offered by the Office of the Attending Physician include physicals and routine examinations, on-site X-rays and lab work, physical therapy and referrals to medical specialists from military hospitals and private medical practices. According to congressional budget records, the office is staffed by at least four Navy doctors as well as at least a dozen medical and X-ray technicians, nurses and a pharmacist.

Sources said when specialists are needed, they are brought to the Capitol, often at no charge to members of Congress.

Explains a former doc from the Congressional clinic, patients who can't get treated on-site get referals to top specialists all over the country. "You would go to the best care in the country. And, for the most part, nobody asked what your insurance was." And the cost? $503. A year."

snip

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/real-public-option-congress-private-medical-clinic

[Thickasabrick]

3. Thanks for posting this - I really had no idea. Sickening nt

[snagglepuss]

4. +1

[Raster]

8. Just another "perk" for the Congressional collaborators.

[area51]

5. +1 (n/t)

[Raster]

7. That's because the Texas-American Petroleum Mafia has decreed that ....

...we India needs a pipeline to carry natural gas across Viet Nam Afghanistan.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

6. Vic Chesnutt was an amazing talent

and unfortunately another victim of our broken HC system.