One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
The New York Times bloggers view this story as a symptom of a dysfunctional health care system caused by none other than BigInsurance™. I prefer to see it not as a bug, but as a feature of Obama's America.
James Verone, an unemployed 59-year-old with a bad back, a sore foot and an undiagnosed growth on his chest, limped into a bank in Gastonia, N.C., this month and handed the teller a note, explaining that this was an unarmed robbery, but she’d better turn over $1 and call the cops. That, he figured, would be enough to get himself arrested and sent to prison for a few years, where he could take advantage of the free medical care.
Just to make sure that no one was confused about his intentions, Mr. Verone made sure to let the teller know that he would be sitting on a couch in the bank, waiting for the police...
In a television interview last week with a local news station, WCNC, Mr. Verone explained that he was hoping for a three-year sentence, which would give him a place to live and free health care until he was old enough to collect a Social Security check and buy a condo on the beach.
(h/t Daily Intel)
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Aug '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Had he just finished reading A Christmas Carol?
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
How funny, I had the same thought!
Feb '11
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
This sort of thing should be illegal.
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Apr '11
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
I look at it as not necessarily part of just Obama's America, but the whole liberal America as a result of the growth of the welfare state and the sense of entitlement. This guy has no shame in taking taxpayer dollars for himself.
Dec '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
SMatthewStolte: This sort of thing should be illegal.
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Would you like...put him in jail for it?
Oct '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
http://www.freakonomics.com/2009/08/11/pay-if-you-go-prisons/
Inspired by Bernie Madoff‘s 150-year prison sentence, New York state assemblyman Jim Tedisco introduced a bill that, as the Economist reports, would establish a “pay-if-you-go” model for prisons, whereby wealthy inmates pay for their own incarceration costs, thereby easing the burden on taxpayers.
Nov '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Here is the complete story, which I know from first-hand experience:
What this fellow did was not unusual and has nothing to do with abuse at the hands of evil health insurance companies. For decades end-of-their-rope derelicts have walked into the nearest bank and attempted faux robberies just to have three hots and a cot.
The FBI would present these characters to our office, where we would begin the (typically) six month process of prosecution in federal court. During that time we would-- through booking, transporting (often to free medical appointments), dealing with their families and attorneys, sitting in on their hearings, and just off-hand conversations--get to know them quit well. Without exception, they had arrived at the bank after a lifetime of sloth, self-absorption, and just plain stupidity.
Obamacare will reward this behavior, at our expense, and we won't even get the benefit of having the slug removed from our presence for a few years. He will, quite probably, cut in line ahead of your grandmother for treatment.
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Insurance companies are evil. They are certainly the cause of the problem.
The Justice Department for years has looked away while carriers refused to sell hospitalization policies, making folks like this poor guy buy the all or nothing policy that now costs as much as a monthly mortgage. He can't afford it.
Now comes Obama, to make the all or nothing policy a mandatory purchase.
May '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Tommy, it's not the carriers refusing to sell bare bones policies, but the state insurance commissions effectively outlawing them. Each state piles on mandate on top of mandate, mostly thanks to lobbies for the various forms of "health" care. So, my employer provides insurance, the premium for which I must pay a fairly hefty portion, that covers in-patient drug and alcohol treatment, chiropractic treatment, IVF, none of which I need or want, and 100% for preventive care appointments that I could easily pay for myself. With a $3,000 deductible. I'd prefer a pure catastrophic policy, but they aren't available. By state law. That's why there's a push for shopping across state lines, though I fear that if it is allowed, it will be with some requirement that the policy adhere to local mandates and then we're back where we started.
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Perhaps in some states, but not in mine. My wife and I tried to buy hospitalization only. All the carriers we called said it wasn't illegal to sell it, they just won't offer it to us.
And the Justice Department Anti-Trust Unit sleeps.
Jul '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Tommy De Seno
Perhaps in some states, but not in mine. My wife and I tried to buy hospitalization only. All the carriers we called said it wasn't illegal to sell it, they just won't offer it to us.
And the Justice Department Anti-Trust Unit sleeps. · Jun 21 at 11:30am
We have an ultra-high deductible policy that essentially works like hospitalization coverage, with a Health Savings Account (the only thing George W Bush did that was worth diddly).
Problem is, since Obamacare, unless you're grandfathered into a plan like ours, you're out of luck - no one can sell them anymore.
May '10
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
A fifty-nine-year-old helpless child. Of all the avenues he could have chosen to address his complaints he chose the one most likely to reduce him to complete dependency. Pitiful fool. Charge him with petty theft and give him thirty days.
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
Kenneth
Tommy De Seno
Perhaps in some states, but not in mine. My wife and I tried to buy hospitalization only. All the carriers we called said it wasn't illegal to sell it, they just won't offer it to us.
And the Justice Department Anti-Trust Unit sleeps. · Jun 21 at 11:30am
We have an ultra-high deductible policy that essentially works like hospitalization coverage, with a Health Savings Account (the only thing George W Bush did that was worth diddly).
Problem is, since Obamacare, unless you're grandfathered into a plan like ours, you're out of luck - no one can sell them anymore. · Jun 21 at 11:37am
I have the same sort of plan, Kenneth. But the other problem is, since insurance companies can't sell these plans anymore, no one new comes into the pool, premiums get more expensive, people leave the plans because they can't afford them anymore, and premiums get even more expensive. Mine have gone up over 30% in just the past year.
Jan '11
Re: One Creative Way to Get Free Housing and Health Care
With all of the misuse of the commerce clause as to the individual mandate, it seems as if an individual trying to purchase only the coverage what they want/need is what the commerce clause is really there for - they are hindered from purchasing what they want.