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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / What’s that good German word….

What’s that good German word….

by | 155 Comments

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Via TPM:

Former Arizona county sheriff Richard Mack, a fierce opponent of Obamacare and a leader in the “constitutional sheriff” movement, is struggling to pay his medical bills after he and his wife each faced serious illnesses. The former sheriff and his wife do not have health insurance and started a GoFundMe campaign to solicit donations from family and friends to cover the costs of their medical care.

“Because they are self-employed, they have no medical insurance and are in desperate need of our assistance,” reads a note on Mack’s personal website….

Well, wasn’t there a major law that made it easy for middle age folks to get health insurance without health screenings.

Besides pointing and laughing so that we don’t need to think that the conservative response to PPACA is to give tax incentives for Go Fund Me campaigns, what else is on the agenda today?

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I supported a president and a party that gave this guy an opportunity to avoid these problems. I’ve done my part.

  2. 2.

    Mustang Bobby

    So these stalwart bootstrappers will end up in some ER and no way to pay for it, so the rest of us can pay for it through our insurance or taxes. So why do they need a fundraiser? Just show the hospital the Constitution and it’s all good, right?

  4. 4.

    Botsplainer

    Here’s hoping that the proprietor of the GoFundMe embezzles every dime.

    Caveat emptor, motherfuckers…

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Maybe this story will make the rounds among teatards. He’s one of their own. Newsflash: their moral superiority won’t protect them against medical catastrophes.

    Schadenfreude before my first cup of coffee today. TGIF.

  7. 7.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    This is sad and I feel bad for them. It must be humiliating. We all make bad choices because none of us is perfect. But they happen to have made a big one that’s biting them in the ass in the worst way. They’ll be taken care of because we have a safety net to keep people from expiring prematurely from this particular kind of stupidity. And I hope their family and friends who shell out to help learn something.

  8. 8.

    Sherparick

    Schadenfreude (apparently the English language has just absconded with it since it passes spell check) is such a great word for a great feeling. Sometimes politics, like science, advances one funeral at a time.

  10. 10.

    beltane

    Obama gave these people the bootstraps needed to pull themselves up, but they prefer mooching off other people to behaving responsibly.

  11. 11.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe this story will make the rounds among teatards. He’s one of their own. Newsflash: their moral superiority won’t protect them against medical catastrophes.

    Schadenfreude before my first cup of coffee today. TGIF.

    It’s unlikely to have any impact on people who aren’t directly involved. When you’re strongly invested in an idea you tend to focus on evidence that supports your beliefs and discount the contrary as irrelevant outliers. That’s just the psychology that we’re all subject to.

  13. 13.

    Rugosa

    I’m sure they thought serious illness would never happen to them, but that’s an adolescent’s view of life. I have no sympathy for them. I don’t care about their stress. Let them crowd fund and run bake sales to pay their bills. This is what they wanted and worked for, now they face the consequences.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    If it makes the rounds, he may raise enough money. George Zimmerman made a good bit. It’s the people who aren’t well known who are screwed.

  15. 15.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @beltane: That’s exactly right. Getting health insurance is responsible! When did it become a bad thing? Same thing with getting birth control. I remember when that was responsible too.

    It’s 21 below this morning. Thanks, Obama.

  16. 16.

    Gindy51

    His wife can sign up for herself, she sure as shit doesn’t need his permission. What a pair of goobers.

  17. 17.

    greennotGreen

    I have never understood opposition to Obamacare, at least rational opposition. Sure, single payer would have been better, but that’s not possible in a country where one of the major political parties is insane.

    Unless you’re fabulously wealthy or suicidal, you need health insurance. There used to be three reasons not to get insurance: 1) pre-existing condition that priced you out of the market, 2) poverty…which priced you out of the market, and 3) being a free-loader. (Okay, four reasons: being nineteen and knowing you were going to live forever in perfect health, but that ends up being a subset of 3) above.) Obamacare pretty well took care of the first two. So, are these people who love their FREEDOM so much they refuse to get insurance now going to admit that they’re freeloaders and that they expect the rest of us to pay for our share of our health care and theirs too?

  18. 18.

    Lee Rudolph

    If I were a mean person, I’d tell them that instead of appealing to GoFundMe, they should rely on GoFuckYourself.

    But I’m not, so I won’t.

  19. 19.

    beltane

    @Iowa Old Lady: A lot of modern conservatism seems to be indistinguishable from the whining of a poorly raised 8 year-old. “Me, me, mee. I’m special. You’re not the boss of me. My toys are special and you can’t take them away from me. I can play in traffic and you can’t stop me.”, etc. As with eight year olds, the inevitable reaction to an incident like this is “Mommeee, help!”

  20. 20.

    Botsplainer

    I just want to say this here today – white and gold. Anybody who sees blue and black is wrong..,

  23. 23.

    Joseph Nobles

    Richard, I don’t know if you can answer this, but it does concern the ACA.

    Yesterday, some right wingers were all up in arms about appropriations for the cost-sharing subsidies in the Silver plans. It seems Congress made no appropriations for those payments to the insurance companies, but the insurance companies still got paid. They insist that since Congress made no explicit appropriation, someone in the CMS must have pulled the money from somewhere else, which would be a violation of the Constitution and possibly involve criminal charges. Have you heard anything about this?

    The story was in the Washington Examiner yesterday, but I saw more stories from November of last year in a Google search.

  26. 26.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @beltane:

    A lot of modern conservatism seems to be indistinguishable from the whining of a poorly raised 8 year-old. “Me, me, mee. I’m special. You’re not the boss of me. My toys are special and you can’t take them away from me. I can play in traffic and you can’t stop me.”, etc. As with eight year olds, the inevitable reaction to an incident like this is “Mommeee, help!”

    As regards exceptional occurrences like sudden illness or accident that’s kind of all of us. It’s certainly every single person you see on a motorcycle without a helmet and everyone who ever buys a lottery ticket. Humans are notoriously bad at recognizing the likelihood and impact of an unusual event.

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    It’s sad, but it’s also stupid.

    And the staggering amounts of money needed for anything but the simplest problem dooms these pass-the-hat approaches. The only reason I had any money after my futile medical struggles last year was because I had insurance.

  28. 28.

    raven

    Republican Martha McSally, in reference to the DHS shitstorm said “I’m a fighter pilot but not a kamakazie pilot, we need to get this done”!

  30. 30.

    voncey

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    I do feel badly for them but it’s infuriating that their bad choices were born entirely of willful ignorance and likely bigotry. Even their recoveries will be slowed down by their own failure to properly look after themselves and further increasing their expenses.

  31. 31.

    WereBear

    @voncey: Yes, it was an especially bad choice for people in their middle years. This is the time when chronic conditions usually start appearing.

    How we respond to them NOW will mean a great deal to us LATER.

  33. 33.

    MattF

    As a matter of fact, they’re dealing with their catastrophe the way they think it should be done– by relying on friends, family, and whatever/whoever to pay their bills. Maybe they can succeed. The problems are 1) it’s just not possible for everyone to pay their bills this way 2) pretty much everyone has medical problems at some point, and it only gets worse as you get older 3) they appear to believe that group insurance is a sign of moral failure. Also, Obummer Kenyan Muslim Soshalist. Sigh.

  34. 34.

    Morzer

    I can feel compassion for many things, but hateful, self-pitying, militant stupidity is not one of them.

  35. 35.

    Michael Bersin

    In Missouri yesterday morning State Auditor Tom Schweich (reelected to a second four year term in November) and recently announced republican candidate for Governor killed himself in his home shortly after leaving a phone message with one of the editors of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post Dispatch wrote about previously off the record conversations and the phone message he received from Schweich. The republican primary race was shaping up to be a particularly nasty one – and anti-semitism was reportedly in the mix.

  37. 37.

    The Thin Black Duke

    The reason I don’t feel sorry for them isn’t because they’re being fucked by their stupidity but because of their cruel and eager willingness to let their stupidity about Obamacare fuck other people. It’s a damned shame that too many idiots in this country want to argue about providing medical insurance to people who don’t have it, but it’s because of fools like Richard Mack that we’re having this bullshit argument in the first place. Karma is a harsh mistress.

  40. 40.

    jonas

    @Baud:

    If the ACA authorizes the payment, Congress doesn’t need to make an specific appropriation.

    …and the Examiner is full of shit. Quelle surprise.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Sigh. How pathetic is this species to be making so much of that stupid dress? It’s Jonathan Swift and his eggs all over again.

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe this story will make the rounds among teatards. He’s one of their own. Newsflash: their moral superiority won’t protect them against medical catastrophes.

    I thought it was shown that Teatards were most likely on some government assistance program, the whole “get the government out of my social security “thing.

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Rugosa

    : I’m sure they thought serious illness would never happen to them, but that’s an adolescent’s view of life. I have no sympathy for them. I don’t care about their stress. Let them crowd fund and run bake sales to pay their bills. This is what they wanted and worked for, now they face the consequences.

    Yes, most conservatives I’ve talked to seem to think getting old or ill is a lifestyle choice.

  50. 50.

    SRW1

    This is so stupid, it is depressing. And what makes it even more depressing is that this guy doesn’t appear to have the ability to learn from a personal shitstorm.

  52. 52.

    beltane

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Under their grubby, louche facades, there is not a Teatard alive who doesn’t dwell in the world of fantasy and fairly tale. Instead of unicorns, wizards, and beautiful princesses, their fantasy world is populated by rugged frontiersmen with muskets and powder horns, wholesome pioneer wives is sunbonnets, and unlimited Indian land that is theirs for the taking. Other than that it’s all the same. I guess liberals are the evil dragons that must be slayed.

  53. 53.

    Belafon

    They could have done the responsible thing by purchasing insurance, making monthly payments, and then using the insurance to help pay their bills. Instead, they’ve acted irresponsibly and are now expecting others to swoop in and save them. If it weren’t for my love of humanity, I’d tell them to go deal with it on their own and stop expecting others to take care of them.

  54. 54.

    Gin & Tonic

    Hmm. Pooling resources to pay for an unexpected catastrophic event. There’s a word for that, it’s on the tip of my tongue…

  55. 55.

    SRW1

    By the way, I don’t like the German word Richard is referring to in this context, because I find the level of stupidity in this exercise of self-immolation too depressing. But I will take the opportunity to introduce another German word which I think fits perfectly:

    hirnrissig – literally: crackbrained

  56. 56.

    Original Lee

    @Botsplainer: I get different colors depending on what I use to view it. Blue and black on my phone, white and gold on my tablet. I am ambicorrect.

  57. 57.

    gelfling545

    @Botsplainer: This was thoroughly, not to say obsessively, hashed out by family & friends on FB last night & I concluded that no rat’s asses would be given by me.

  59. 59.

    boatboy_srq

    @Sherparick: Indeed they do: the freedom to go bankrupt because they’d rather starve than take anything from That Man™. Call me heartless – but I say let’em: this is what they insisted they wanted.

  60. 60.

    guachi

    @Iowa Old Lady: I find it odd people keep insisting the dress is white and gold when it’s been shown in multiple other pictures that it’s actually blue and black. I’ve tried, using photo editing software, to make the dress white and gold and it’s impossible. It’s really easy, however, to make it look black and blue.

    If you see different colors on different devices, it’s probably because the device on which you see it white and gold is one with a terrible screen with horrible viewing angles.

  64. 64.

    raven

    Whoa, where’s Ozark?

    (CNN)Nine people are dead after shootings in south-central Missouri, the Houston Herald newspaper in Missouri reported Friday morning, citing a sheriff there.

    There are multiple crime scenes, including four in the Texas County community of Tyrone, county Sheriff James Sigman told the Herald.

    The Missouri State Highway Patrol is expected to hold a news conference about the deaths at about 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET) Friday, CNN affiliate KYTV reported.

    Tyrone is about 135 miles (84 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.

  65. 65.

    debbie

    There must be something odd in Arizona’s air:

    Officials at Arizona State University probably weren’t expecting the full Stormfront treatment when its English department advertised a spring semester class exploring the “problem of whiteness.”

    But that’s exactly what the university got. The floodgates opened in late January after an ASU journalism student complained on Fox News that the class singled out white people as “the root cause of social injustices for this country.” Neo-Nazi types and white supremacists then reportedly threatened the white professor who was teaching the course, Lee Bebout. They publicly shared his personal contact information and flooded message boards with menacing rants against him.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/angelo-john-gage-asu-problem-of-whiteness

  72. 72.

    MomSense

    I feel sorry for these people for two reasons. Having been without health insurance for several incredibly stressful years, these people are now experiencing exactly the kind of nightmare that I used to worry about. It’s bad enough to find out you have a serious medical condition. Financial ruin and no way to pay for the treatment you need–well that is devastating. The other reason I feel sorry for these people is because they have been fucking lied to by the most vile, cynical, evil people who are scaring people into making the wrong life and death choices. Every pundit, politician, “journalist”, and lobbyist who lied to people about the ACA all share in the culpability.

    I have met more people who did not sign up for healthcare on the exchange because they heard it would be too expensive, or they didn’t trust it, or whatever reason they heard on FOX and these people really needed the health insurance and the access to providers it would have given them. I’ve talked to the ones who are reachable and convinced many people to sign up. The looks on their faces when they find out they can get insurance for $50 a month is incredible. We can all do the math on what their income is based on the monthly premium they pay. They absolutely would not be able to pay for treatment or even wellness visits.

    When a journalist like Chuck Todd on the supposed liberal channel says that they didn’t correct all the ObamaCare misinformation because it wasn’t the media’s job to “sell” it, you realize how it is possible for the Macks to make such a stupid decision.

  73. 73.

    Comrade Dread

    I don’t feel joy or gloating at their plight. I feel pity that we as a species can be so stubborn and blind that we actively oppose things that might help us and choose paths that are self-destructive.

    I wonder if the next species that comes after us will be the same way.

    @raven: A man in a cave 7,000 miles beheads a man and the establishment goes apeshit with panic and frothing at the mouth.

    An American in a town 2,000 miles away shoots nine people and it’s business as usual.

  76. 76.

    Eric U.

    yesterday I was trying to find the post where Richard talked about getting insurance subsidies if you don’t make enough money. Subject came up on facebook

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @guachi:
    The photo is of a blue and black dress overexposed until its colors are closer to white and gold. So everybody is correct, they’re just answering different questions. My only surprise is that random experience with different computer monitors hasn’t taught everyone to figure out the original color of an overexposed photo.

  78. 78.

    Jado

    Can we somehow make it so that ALL of the money going into their GoFundMe site is from Blacks, Gays, and Illegals?

    It would be worth it just to watch them struggle with whether to accept the money from fellow moochers.

    I wonder if they would refuse…

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MomSense:
    Thank you. It’s good to remember that people are not monolithic blocks. The opposition to the ACA is motivated by racism, and there is a vast group of people so racist that because a black man offered them a hand, they’re willing to drown. The Macks are in this group.

    But… there are also a whole lot of people who have just enough motivation to not listen to the truth, and trust the liars. People who put their faith in the wrong source, and could be reached if they saw the facts for themselves.

    And there is everyone in between, on every shading and each individual. It’s good to be reminded not to write them all off into the worst category.

    And finally, nobody, nobody, no matter how evil, deserves to suffer. They only need to be stopped from hurting others.

  85. 85.

    rk

    @guachi:

    I don’t even understand what you’re saying. The dress is light blue and gold as I see it. I can’t even begin to imagine how it’s supposed to be black and blue.

  86. 86.

    Ryan

    I know it’s cruel, but no, pointing and laughing is it for today. Also, I am snowed in, so there is that.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    Mr and Mrs Mack have cut off their nose to spite their face. I think someone should help them. We should always help the needy; if we help only the deserving, we wind up with the unpleasant task of deciding who deserves and who doesn’t. I’d skip any “Let this be a lesson to you!” lectures, though. They would probably fall on self-righteously deaf ears.

  88. 88.

    H.K. Anders

    @beltane: Excellent point. For all their caterwauling about socialism, Obamacare is a market-based solution to the problem of un- and under-insured Americans. It simply makes health insurance affordable and accessible to the majority of people who cannot afford it or who were excluded due to pre-existing conditions.

    Now, Mr. Sheriff Mack and his wife are dependent on the kindness of strangers. The irony is that they will probably end up on Medicaid, which resembles socialized medicine far more than does Obamacare.

  89. 89.

    The Moar You Know

    @MomSense: Thank you for your decency. Yes, these people are idiots; but they were lied to. Repeatedly and deliberately, and now they believe something that’s going to likely kill them.

    Their blood will be on the hands of the GOP and no one else.

  90. 90.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    From TPM, best comment yet on this story:

    “It’s like a classical tragedy in which the protagonist suffers a reversal of fortune caused by a character flaw—in this case, the flaw of being a fucking idiot.”

  91. 91.

    Jamey

    LOL. Fuck him. 20 years of him living on a ventilator might help hammer home the point to ‘Murica lovers that medical insurance is good–and more medical insurance is better.

  92. 92.

    MattF

    @Amir Khalid: I wouldn’t try to stop anyone from helping them, but their actions have harmed others– that they’ve harmed themselves as well is too bad, but it’s collateral damange.

  93. 93.

    boatboy_srq

    @MomSense: Your first point, about being uninsured, doesn’t factor in 2015 with the ACA in its second active year. I’ve been without health insurance myself, but prior to ACA, and I well understand your sentiment on it; however, going without health insurance pre-ACA (because of affordability and lack of guarantees) and going without today (as a deliberate, conscious choice) are two entirely different things.

    This, however, is highly relevant.

    The other reason I feel sorry for these people is because they have been fucking lied to by the most vile, cynical, evil people who are scaring people into making the wrong life and death choices. Every pundit, politician, “journalist”, and lobbyist who lied to people about the ACA all share in the culpability.

    The anti-ACA propaganda has been loud, fierce and nearly uncontested outside the administration. The Macks are clearly victims of the anti-ACA media bombardment. But they wouldn’t be as complete victims if they weren’t ready to buy into the propaganda in the first place. I sympathize with their lack of unbiased information; however, the unbiased information is available to them and they are choosing not to obtain it – and they’re calling for people sympathetic to both their condition and their politics to help them pay fees that they do not need to be paying and would not be responsible for if they would just give up their wingnuttery. They could save themselves a fvckton of angst and money if they could adjust to a Blah President. They can’t. The MSM bears some responsibility for that – but only so much.

  94. 94.

    Karmus

    Apologies if this has already been said, but the real question seems to me to be what colors do the Macks think the dress is?

  95. 95.

    Suzanne

    I’m sure I have something more important to spend my money on. Action figures, maybe?

    I’m such a bad person.

  96. 96.

    West of the Cascades

    @boatboy_srq: Richard Mack has been one of the louder propagandists – http://sheriffmack.com/ has a headline touting “Decisions from Sheriff Mack’s lawsuit against the Clinton administration being used to block Obamacare.”

    I have a harder time feeling sympathy for him in these circumstances. I agree with Amir Khalid that we should always help the needy — but we’ve done so by supporting a fair expansion of affordable health insurance that should particularly benefit self-employed people like the Macks.

    Reminds me of the old fable of the devout guy who hears on the radio, “the river is rising, you need to evacuate,” and says “I trust God, he’ll save me.” The river surrounds his house and he looks out the window as a boat comes by and the boatsmen say “climb on, we’ll take you to shore,” and he says “I trust God, he’ll save me,” then the water rises more and he climbs on his roof and a helicopter flies overhead and lowers a rope with the pilot shouting “grab the rope and climb up!” and the guy shakes his head and says “I trust God, he’ll save me.”

    After he drowns, he appears before God in heaven and asks “God, I trusted in you, why didn’t you save me?” And God says “I sent you an evacuation warning, a boat, and a helicopter, why didn’t you use them?”

  97. 97.

    Jasmine Bleach

    @Central Planning:

    They will have to pay taxes on the $30k (or whatever) they take in, right?

    I would think so. I don’t know how it works in this particular circumstance, but they may be able to consider the first $12k as a gift (or whatever the gift limit is nowadays), but anything above that should definitely be taxed.

    Unless the ex-sheriff is a non-profit . . .

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    @Suzanne: Luna toys.

    You’re not a bad person. You are laughing at a bad person.

    I have less and less sympathy for Mr. Mack. He was an authority figure, and likely talked other gullible people out of signing up for ACA.

  99. 99.

    boatboy_srq

    @West of the Cascades: Thanks for the info on the Macks. The parable is entirely apt in this instance, as well. The only question remaining is whether the crowdfunding is coming from wealthy wingnuts (like the Kochs) or other propagandized rubes. Grift in the service of paying unnecessary, stratospheric medical bills is still grift.

    ETA: @Jasmine Bleach: They’ll probably need $140% of their medical bills covered by the crowdfunding effort to cover the taxes on that income, and they’ll use that requirement as proof that Big Gubmint is impoverishing Gud Righteous Patriotic Ahmurrcans™ with high taxes so the taxes should be done away with.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    Out of curiosity, do we know the Macks could have afforded the Ocare premium, had they chosen to try? Did Arizona finally decide to expand Medicaid? (Think Brewer did, but haven’t checked….)

    In Virginia, our GOP legislature fought expanding Medicaid tooth and nail. Which means you’re out of luck if you’re not making ca. $20K or so a year for receiving a subsidy. Not sure the the exact numbers, but was surprised to see that someone making say $12-13K a year (reasonable part-time job, if one had family care responsibilities) is sh*t out of luck on affordable OCare insurance premiums.

  101. 101.

    Suzanne

    @Elizabelle: The anti-inflammatories seem to be helping somewhat. She’s putting a bit of weight on that foot, but not like normal. I wish I could get pet health insurance on the exchange, heh. My dog is a freeloader.

  102. 102.

    bemused

    A few tidbits about Mack. He and his wife are Mormon and have five children. He has written several books on gun laws. During the Bundy ranch standoff, Mack was a supporter and strategizer of plan to put women on front line if feds started shooting.

  103. 103.

    rk

    @Amir Khalid:

    We should always help the needy; if we help only the deserving, we wind up with the unpleasant task of deciding who deserves and who doesn’t.

    We help the needy and they turn around and kick others below them. Because that’s exactly what’s happening. A lot of these tea party types are on various social programmes, but they’re viciously opposed to others getting any help from the govt. I have a limited amount of money. I would never, ever contribute a dime to pay this moron’s bills. There are 10,000 causes that I’ll support and he’ll not be 100001. In an ideal world we should always help the needy. But in the real world we should never support people like this. If all his bills get paid, then this moron will turn around and say that he was right all along because the community took care of him which is how it should be. No, he needs to spends years of ill health, worry and pain and then maybe he’ll get a clue.

  104. 104.

    Suzanne

    @Elizabelle: Yes, AZ took the Medicaid (here it is administrated as AHCCCS, pronounced “access”) expansion. One of the few good things Brewer ever did.

  105. 105.

    Jasmine Bleach

    @boatboy_srq:

    The only question remaining is whether the crowdfunding is coming from wealthy wingnuts (like the Kochs) or other propagandized rubes.

    Probably mostly from the rubes. You can bet folks like the Kochs are insured to the hilt (privately, of course). They may be evil, but they are also smart and you know they don’t like wasting money at all.

    You can bet most of the wealthy wingers don’t really believe a lot of what they push/fund. It’s just a means to an end politically. A combination of deregulation so they can make more money, and getting more money out of the rubes to increase that percentage of the wealth they own. Really, they seem to be driving for a modern form of feudalism.

  106. 106.

    Amir Khalid

    @West of the Cascades:
    Needless to say, I agree entirely with your point too. Mr Mack would rather beg from his neghbours than accept a handout from the wrong people. His petulance has made helping hm needlessly difficult, and those who still want to help him should keep that in mind.

  107. 107.

    Chris

    To quote conservative activists at CPAC a couple years back: if you didn’t have the foresight to get health insurance, then society should just let you die.

    This is the bed you and millions of sociopaths like you made, vote by vote, over the last fifty years, sheriff. Now shut up and lie in it.

  109. 109.

    skwerlhugger

    I was volunteering at my local food pantry when the subject came up of a family- 2 young children- in distress; the MA man had been in a motorcycle accident in NH, massive facial and motor injuries, other ( “Live free or die” NH) driver not insured, and his venal insurance company was refusing coverage for life-long injuries, the bastards! I figured it out later– he’d driven from MA to NH to take his helmet off, accident, face/head injuries, insurance company said “read your policy, dude. No helmet, no coverage”. This whole State thing just hasn’t panned out. Time to maybe admit things have changed over 200 years and do some rewriting.

  110. 110.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jasmine Bleach:

    They may be evil, but they are also smart and you can bet they don’t like wasting money at all.

    They have wasted vastly more money on the Tea Party than they will ever get back from it. They are greedy, but they are greedy second and lunatic racist conspiracy theorists first.

  112. 112.

    Chris

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    The reason I don’t feel sorry for them isn’t because they’re being fucked by their stupidity but because of their cruel and eager willingness to let their stupidity about Obamacare fuck other people.

    ‘

    This, exactly.

    It’s one thing to be an idiot in such a way that you shoot yourself in the foot – all of us do that at some point.

    It’s quite another to intentionally try to screw other people, which is what the GOP voter base (not politicians, not lobbyists, not financiers, but ordinary voters) has been doing for decades. That’s not being an idiot. That’s being a sociopath.

    Yes, I still believe society should take care of these people, even if they don’t extend that courtesy to others (my grandmother’s soup kitchen didn’t refuse to feed the racist redneck bastard in line for their food, even though he was furiously berating the black people in the same line as him for being lazy and wasting society’s resources). But it’s not my fault that that isn’t happening; it’s theirs.

  113. 113.

    feebog

    @MomSense:

    The other reason I feel sorry for these people is because they have been fucking lied to by the most vile, cynical, evil people who are scaring people into making the wrong life and death choices. Every pundit, politician, “journalist”, and lobbyist who lied to people about the ACA all share in the culpability.

    You are a better person than I am, I don’t feel sorry for the good Sheriff at all. He is a person of prominence, and fits right in with the pundit, politicians, and lobbyists. He is a culprit, not a victim.

    They never think it will happen to them. My 23 year old granddaughter suffered a horrible one care accident on December 20. Broken neck, multiple fractures of the pelvis, and a right knee so mangled she may never walk properly again. It is a miracle she is not paralyzed from the neck down (still in a brace for a few more weeks). Over 460K in medical bills so far, and counting. If it were not for Obamacare she would be on the hook for all of it. But because she is under 26 my son and daughter-in-law were able to carry her on their policy. It will never happen to you, until it does.

  117. 117.

    boatboy_srq

    @Jasmine Bleach: There’s a good reason for the Kochs et al to help out here: Mack has been one of their staunchest footsoldiers on this item, and it’s good tactics to lend a hand. Oh, wait, what am I saying…

  119. 119.

    bemused

    @Suzanne:

    That’s what the compassionate republicans have told us, churches and private charities will take care of you. The important thing is that you have freedom from government telling you what to do.

  120. 120.

    BC

    @Joseph Nobles: Obamacare self-funding through medical device, tanning booth, and other taxes, so no appropriations necessary. Makes Republican congressmen angry, but it is a paid-for program

  122. 122.

    Jasmine Bleach

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    They have wasted vastly more money on the Tea Party than they will ever get back from it. They are greedy, but they are greedy second and lunatic racist conspiracy theorists first.

    Ha! No way. The net worth of the Koch brothers has gone from the mid-teens of billions each to something like $35 billion each today. The amount of cash they drop on the Tea Party is literally pocket change for them (millions at most). They do spend more (undoubtedly) on pushing ALEC and trying to get state laws passed, but even that is nothing compared to the money it makes them in the end.

    They know exactly what they are doing, and it’s all about the money (and the power that comes with it) . . .

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @Lee Rudolph:
    I am and I do.

    Hey sheriff, go fuck yourself.

    It’s like that old story of god not hearing someone’s prayers. He send a messenger, a rowboat and a helicopter but the asshole passed on the help because he was waiting for GOD to show up and maybe end the flooding. President Obama gave you a good insurance answer, plenty of chances to use it and you still refused. You are smart enough to dress yourself and be a sheriff but you can’t see when someone hands you a huge gift? Fuck you, you moron.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @boatboy_srq:
    You said it much nicer than I did.
    @MomSense:
    Many of us one this here blog have been seen medical problems while uninsured or way under insured, my self included. But when given a hand up to be able to afford in some way, health care (in my case the VA) we took it because we aren’t morons. Pre ACA my monthly cost for insurance was quoted as $1200-1400 per month, for crappy coverage. After that my cost would run in the $200/month range. So I could have gotten insurance without the VA. I looked and I showed several others how much it would cost them because they didn’t want to be bothered to look themselves, just complain. Life isn’t fair but when you stack the deck yourself, against yourself, you deserve what you get.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @Jasmine Bleach:
    I think that each person giving can give up to $12,000 as a gift. The total is not from one source so I’m not sure that it is taxable. Depends on how the IRS sees it.

  131. 131.

    jon

    The Oath Keepers don’t have a health plan? I guess there’s one more reason I won’t join their movement.

  132. 132.

    opiejeanne

    @MomSense: You just described my sister, except she doesn’t listen to Fox News. She’s a Republican (or was, can’t tell these days) because our parents were and it’s a habit, reflexive.
    Her daughter, who used to be super-conservative suddenly came to and is well on her way to becoming a Leftie Liberal because she’s been paying attention, made my sister sign up for the ACA but insisted on going to a broker instead of using the California signup page. She called to let us know how thrilled she was by the cost of the insurance that guy found for her.

  133. 133.

    jon

    I think people should be free to not wear helmets or seat belts, but the hospitals get to harvest and sell their organs to pay their bills. You only need one cornea, kidney, and lung to get through life, after all. That should cover most trauma surgeon bills. A little skin to cover the rest? Maybe, but not too much.

  135. 135.

    boatboy_srq

    @jon: If there were a way whereby the anti-Obamacare crowd (as a whole) could go uninsured with full knowledge that catastrophic illness/injury mandated immediate irreversible personal bankruptcy (as in the hospital immediately obtains all their assets), I’d be for that. Non-fatal condition: you come out healthy but a pauper; fatal condition: your spouse/kids get nothing that was yours (though they aren’t on the hook for more bills). Personal Responsibility donchano.

  136. 136.

    Phoebes in Santa fe

    The first thing on the website is about his accident and beg for money to cover it. The SECOND thing is about his lawsuit blocking Obamacare in South Carolina. Bizarre placement, I think.

  137. 137.

    MCA1

    @boatboy_srq: Perfectly stated. At some point, you’re complicit in your own ignorance, if it’s driven by resentment and intellectual laziness and unwillingness to expose yourself to anything that doesn’t confirm your fearful biases.

    I totally get MomSense’s perspective and applaud her mirth. But it’s worth noting that Mack isn’t just an otherwise innocent consumer of false news and lies. He’s a purveyor of it. He didn’t just recently come to his ignorance in the FOX News era. He’s been out starting seditious groups, and peddling nullification and various other put-upon middle-aged white guy bullshit for decades.

  138. 138.

    opiejeanne

    @bemused: If they’re Mormon then they’ll probably get the funding they need.

    It won’t come from the high rollers like Koch but from people more like us, middle class or lower.

  139. 139.

    opiejeanne

    @boatboy_srq: possibly grudgingly, but I know her daughter knows who made it possible. The guy’s office was in Missouri (my head is still spinning) and she commiserated with him that his business was all going to dry up in another month (because of the deadline). I told her I didn’t weep at all for him and that it was his employees (like the woman who actually did the work of applying for it) who would actually be hurting, not him.
    She will listen to a man who will tell her the exact same thing that I tell her, but not to me, because I’m just her bossy older sister. My husband was the one who got her to even consider it, tried to get her to sit down at the computer, but her daughter was the one who got it done. That daughter has certainly changed her point of view, maybe because she’s noticed what the world is really like, partly because she has a job with a food bank and I think she noticed that Those People are actually people.

  140. 140.

    jon

    @boatboy_srq: Making the medical care costs that could have been avoided with insurance ineligible to be dispensed with in bankruptcy courts would be a modest step in that direction. (Just as student loan costs aren’t eligible for that now.) Want personal responsibility? Eat personal responsibility.

  141. 141.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @beltane:

    A lot of modern conservatism seems to be indistinguishable from the whining of a poorly raised 8 year-old. “Me, me, mee. I’m special. You’re not the boss of me. My toys are special and you can’t take them away from me. I can play in traffic and you can’t stop me.”, etc. As with eight year olds, the inevitable reaction to an incident like this is “Mommeee, help!”

    I see you’ve met my (50-something wingnut) younger brother. He also sees no conflict between bloviating loudly for hours about the evils of socialized medicine (which he has never experienced, but it saved my life) and taking a job with a European company that provides Swedish-style benefits and health coverage.

  145. 145.

    J R in WV

    Well, last week I had total shoulder replacement surgery, and wrote a check to the hospital for around a thousand dollars, and provided a credit card to the surgeon for his cost above my insurance benefit, about $300.

    I’ve had to pay for an MRI ($80 after insurance) and some other little things around that cost.

    I worked from the age of 14 until I was nearly 60, except for about 6 years in college or building our farm house, and now retired I have to pay about $400/month for my retirement cost for insurance provided by my former employer.

    This Mack guy makes my heart bleed with agony that he has brain-washed other people into rejecting insurance that would help him now, and his probably powerless wife.

    She could have insurance for almost nothing since she had no income, except for her husband not allowing her to apply for the Obamacare insurance, which he and his fellow minions named for the President who brought it into being.

    I’m tempted to send them a short questionaire about Obamacare, offering them a check towards their health costs upon my receipt of their properly completed form.

    Make them admit that Obamacare would save their lives without bankrupting them, then send them a check for $0.04. My share of what Obamacare would have paid.

  147. 147.

    Death Panel Truck

    “Since it appears that recovery will take a good deal of time with associated expenses, I struggle to not feel stress – both the stress of thinking about huge hospital and other medical bills as well as regular living expenses while I am unable to work — and also the stress of not being able to accomplish what I am so passionate about doing for others,” Mack wrote in a note on his GoFundMe page. “It is difficult and humbling to say that we need your help, but we do.”

    Dear Sheriff Mack:

    Go pound sand.

    Sincerely, Death Panel Truck.

  150. 150.

    jon

    @opiejeanne: Nope, he was a conservative Republican, stanch anti-Communist, and not much of a Democrat. He might be a centrist Democrat today, but he was not a Democrat then.

  151. 151.

    boatboy_srq

    @Death Panel Truck:

    the stress of not being able to accomplish what I am so passionate about doing for others

    If by that he means “I can’t survive in the poverty I want for Those Other People Who Don’t Have Health Insurance Either”, I can’t say I’m especially sympathetic.

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