Ron Paul Says Aide Who Died With $400k Medical Bill Didn’t Need Government Help

[mod mom]

BENJY SARLIN SEPTEMBER 21, 2011, 11:54 AM

Ron Paul told TPM on Wednesday that even if there’s a “case or two” that makes Americans uncomfortable, the government should stay out of the health care business. Even if one of the cases in question is his former campaign manager, Kent Snyder, who died with $400,000 in unpaid medical bills after being unable to secure health insurance due to a pre-existing condition.

At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Paul took questions from reporters on Snyder, whose story surfaced in the press after Paul said in the last Republican debate that the government should not intervene even to save a comatose 30 year old who did not have insurance. As Gawker noted, Snyder died in June 2008 without health insurance, leaving behind $400,000 in bills. His friends and family set up a fund to raise money to pay off the debt. It’s not clear how much money they were able to raise: a site set up by Ron Paul aide Justine Lam to track the medical fund stopped updating in 2008 with only $34,870 in donations.

“Well first off, people do get care, even under this terrible situation we have in medicine today,” Paul told reporters when asked about his former aide. “Kent, my campaign manager, wasn’t denied any care at all.”

According to Snyder’s friends, he was unable to obtain affordable health insurance — rendering moot Paul’s advice at the debate to find coverage in advance — because of a preexisting condition. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies will no longer be able to reject customers on these grounds starting in 2013. I asked Paul whether Snyder’s inability to secure health insurance, even if he wanted it, put him in an impossible situation without government support. He suggested that states and counties could take action to help the sick, but put the emphasis on charity.

-snip

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/ron-paul-says-aide-who-died-with-400k-medical-bill-didnt-need-government-help.php?ref=fpa

and people are backing this guy?

[louis-t]

1. And who payed the $400,000 in bills he owed???

Hmmmmm?

[mod mom]

2. taxpayers of course: "His friends and family set up a fund to raise money to pay off the debt"

but it only raised ~ $34,000

[FormerDittoHead]

9. This is the key - "charity" even with wealthy friends, isn't able to pony up.

And that's the libertarian ideal - to leave everything up to charity... WHEN THEY DON'T DONATE ENOUGH.

And beware - they'll argue that they WOULD *if* they didn't have to pay such high taxes (of course, donations are tax deductible).

They would also argue that if government were out of the picture, there would be more competition, as if they'd just build multiple hospitals next to each other.

It's going to be a LONG, PAINFUL walk to FINALLY getting single payer, but we "must" optimize the profits for the wealthy before we pass the break-even point.

[newspeak]

11. so, the family has to go "begging"

to pay off the medical debt. Just like the bake sales and cans at some store to provide money for some poor family member. The man needs to get a clue. Health care should be a "right." No one should have to go begging or see their family member die because they cannot afford medical assistance.

[Kolesar]

12. I bet the hospitals and doctors got stiffed

If the illness cleaned out the patient's estate, the family members are not compelled to retire the debt.

[hedgehog]

3. Qusetion: how did this man rack up $400,000 in bills with an

apparently terminal condition and no apparent means of paying? It looks as if he got all the care he needed. The real problem is all the people out there who don't get care because they can't pay!

[unblock]

8. one phone call from a certain congresscritter and he gets all the care he needs

i think any hospital would be happy to take that case even if they never got paid.

or, perhaps more accurately, they wouldn't dare disappoint a powerful congresscritter.

[BeyondGeography]

4. A case or two?

Nice try, Ron.

[Angry Dragon]

5. It is time for ron paul to give up his taxpayer funded

medical coverage

[mod mom]

6. winner response. I wish some journalist would have followed up his comment

with yours. !

[Dokkie]

16. Agree

He has promised not to collect his congressional pension, its now time to do the same with his STATE sponsored health insurance. After that, his state paid salary too. If you hate the state so much, maybe you should quit collecting anything at all from it, pull your damn self up and quit relying on the guberment.

[gratuitous]

7. Totally agree, Ron

The government shouldn't be in the health care business. I'll go you one better, and say there shouldn't be a business around health care. It should be a basic human right. You're human, you get health care.

Heartless bastard who teaches other people to be heartless bastards.

[jtrockville]

10. "States and counties could take action"

Isn't that what the Affordable Care Act provides for? Any state with a better plan is free to implement it?

[laundry_queen]

13. What a total asshat

Taxpayers are already paying out the fucking nose to cover these stupid insurance companies' 'allowance for doubtful account' through their freaking ever increasing now-unaffordable premiums. Who the fuck does he think covers that $400,000? (sorry, $365,130) It doesn't go poof into thin air. His family will probably have to declare bankruptcy and then the insurance company counts it as a loss, which means everyone's premiums go up to cover the insurance companies' obscene profits. And, Ron Paul, in case you haven't noticed in your little bubble, there's a deep recession going on and NO ONE HAS ANYMORE MONEY TO DONATE TO CHARITY in large enough quantities to offset everyone's medical costs. Ugh, the stoopid, it burns.

Ron Paul needs to give up his government health care. Put up or shut up, Ron Paul. YOU go deal with your beloved insurance businesses. You go get your own insurance policy (good luck with that at your age) and pay it out of your pocket or you're just another loud mouth hypocrite.

[MisterP]

14. Harold Camping's brother

except that Paulistas ARE cultists: the 5-21ers were just nitwits

[SteveM]

15. Hmm. I don't have insurance, no Medicare. I'll study up on this libertarianism. nt