The Paul Plan
by digby
Ron Paul’s former campaign manager died in 2008, uninsured because of a pre-existing condition. That’s right:
Like the man in Blitzer’s example, the 49-year-old Snyder…was relatively young and seemingly healthy when the illness struck. He was also uninsured. [The Kansas City Star quoted his sister at the time as saying that a “a pre-existing condition made the premiums too expensive.”] When he died on June 26, 2008, two weeks after Paul withdrew his first bid for the presidency, his hospital costs amounted to $400,000. The bill was handed to Snyder’s surviving mother who was incapable of paying. Friends launched a website to solicit donations.
According to CNN they managed to raise $50,000 leaving the “estate” 350k in debt. When they asked Paul about this he insisted that Snyder wasn’t denied care, which is true, but he evaded the fact that somebody has to pay this bill and the more likely outcome which is that the hospital and doctors who treated him will simply pass the costs on to those who are insured. (He pointed out that the hospital hasn’t tried to collect from the mom — which I guess means that he thinks the care was free.)
I suppose Snyder could have shopped around for a “better deal” while he was under the oxygen tent, but essentially the only way Paul’s plan really works is if he and his friends had managed to find the 400k to pay for Snyder up front — or if the hospital had thrown him into the street when it didn’t arrive. That’s Libertarian economics in action.
And that’s the kind of thing those cheering Tea Partiers all believe in too. Unless it happens to them, of course. In which case the argument will be that, unlike all those freeloaders, they deserve to be cared for. Real Americans really are entitled.
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