Plaintiff challenging healthcare law went bankrupt – with unpaid medical bills

[SunSeeker]

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.

[babylonsister]

1. "an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address. "

I maintain some people are just plain dumb.

[eridani]

10. Making underinsurance the norm will only make the problem worse n/t

[mlevans]

28. re: I maintain some people are just plain dumb.

Which, alas, health care coverage will not cure.

[excuse not to write]

37. They should still have access, though

Last edited Sat Mar 10, 2012, 08:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Love thy neighbor and all that.

[tooeyeten]

40. dumb for allowing

herself to be used and misled by her attorneys.

[madrchsod]

2. boy oh boy..they picked the wrong person to make their case

[christx30]

3. Only $4,500 in medical debt?

What did she do? Have a salad in the cafeteria?

[2banon]

51. rofl!

[Monk06]

4. You can declare bankruptcy in Florida when you only owe $4,500? No wonder all the crooks there..

Last edited Fri Mar 9, 2012, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

[AngryAmish]

32. You can declare bankruptcy with $1 in debt

Not smart, and the filing fee is $405 or so but you can.

[Monk06]

33. In Canada the minimum debt to declare personal bankrupsy is $1000 which surprised me

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]

5. "she and her husband owe $55,000 to others, including credit card companies."

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.

I wager $1 that at least some of that $55K is medical-related charges.

[subterranean]

6. If her only income is $275 a month in unemployment...

she would qualify for Medicaid under the new healthcare law. She wouldn't have to pay a dime.

[Ian David]

14. But THAT would be SOCIALISM!

Unlike bankruptcy and unemployment insurance and...

Oh, wait...

[KatyMan]

15. Common misconception about Medicaid

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]

18. 65 or blind or disabled or have dependent children.

But, of course, that changes in 2014, when anyone with an income below 133% of the poverty level will be eligible.

[jeff47]

19. Medicaid != Medicare

Medicare is for 65+ (Technically 67+ now), blind or disabled.

Medicaid is for low-income people regardless of age or disability.

[KatyMan]

44. Nope- wrong

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]

50. Medicaid varies by state.

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]

23. The Affordable Care Act includes a Medicaid expansion.

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]

45. Agree-

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]

7. The stupidity is strong with this one. nt

[sarcasmo]

24. You are wise Obi Won

[dkf]

8. That amount wouldn't have triggered a catastrophic policy.

She could have had a catastrophic policy and paid her premium and still go bankrupt with $4500 in medical bills.

[area51]

9. +1

There is still very little regulation of the insurance cos. in this country. The GingrichCare we were given won't stop medical bankruptcies.

[link: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]

11. just as so many Obama critics

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]

35. How do taxpayers subsidize the bankrupt? N/t

[KG]

12. last time i checked, people w/ health insurance can still go bankrupt.

insurance doesn't pay all the bills. HCR doesn't address that.

[Ian David]

13. Derp! n/t

[Wait Wut]

16. But...

...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]

17. So.... if she has a heart attack, what happens??

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]

39. She will be a charity case

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]

20. if she's got $55g in debt, including unpaid credit card bills

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]

21. And who eventually

pays for it anyway, yes, my friends, the consumers. Oy-vey, and people wonder why the "GOPs" are insane.

[bayareaboy]

22. Do you wonder how matron Brown would feel if someone didn"t pay here?

I will bet she would pull the keys, so fast. and do a mechanic's lien even faster.

[Smilo]

25. Stupid is, as stupid does.

And just who does she expect to pay for her bankruptcy?

[EC]

26. If she's on unemployment

her insurance now is her government paid Medicaid.

[zentrum]

27. There's a cure

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]

29. So, She's bankrupt now and can't pay her medical bills. So guess who she wants to pay her bills now?

ME!!! The taxpayer!!! WHAT A SLUT!!!!

[MH1]

30. So, did she challenge mandatory unemployment insurance payments?

I mean, really ....

[andym]

31. Perhaps she is receiving some cash for agreeing to act as the plaintiff

That would certainly be plausible given her family's dire financial condition.

[Lucky Luciano]

34. Burning stupid. nt

[NICO9000]

36. Bankrupt and on unemployment, eh?

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]

38. Arrrrgh. My brain. It's burning.

[krispos42]

41. So then the governmen, that is the taxpayers, picked up her unpaid medical bills.

Okay, then, she can shove that check for $4,500 under my door.



Um... make that a certified cashier's check.

[dkf]

42. Wouldn't the doctors eat the loss?

Do taxpayers pay doctors for non payment?

[krispos42]

47. They can claim the loss on their taxes, is how I believe it works

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]

49. Good point. They do that on top of inflating their charges to cover nonpayment. nt

[SunSeeker]

48. Doctors inflate their charges to cover the predictable amout of nonpayment.

So no, you and I eat it when we pay our medical bills (or buy insurance).

[mackattack]

43. Who says I don't have insurance right now?

Because when you dont pay for your health procedures, the cost gets passed on to us.

[bpj62]

46. Pacer System

You look up the browns bankruptcy by logging onto the US Federal Court System. All bankruptcy filings are public.