READER COMMENTS ON
"Oh, Bummer: Tea Partying Former Sheriff Now Begging Public to Pay For His Health Care"
(15 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
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Soul Rebel
said on 3/1/2015 @ 9:50 pm PT...
If you look at Mack's goFundMe site, almost all of the donations are made by "Obamacare supporting liberals" who are really giving this guy a tongue lashing for his irresponsibility. It's a hoot.
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
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Kyle D
said on 3/2/2015 @ 8:00 am PT...
Donated $10. With the following:
This left-of-center American populist is donating $10 in the hopes that the irony of your situation is not lost on you and that you and those who read this site will understand WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
Despite the fact your positions are retrograde and an affront to human dignity, YOU ARE A HUMAN BEING WHO DESERVES A DECENT LIFE, WHICH INCLUDES MEDICAL CARE.
Sign up for the ACA. Pre-existing conditions are not an issue.
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 9:24 am PT...
Nice catch Brad.
What? The sheriff didn't have a medical savings account with hundreds of thousands in it?
I love Obamacare. I went without insurance for 8 years and thank the sun lord I didn't have an accident during that time. I sure worked hard on my job which carried a scam plan called "Starbridge", which wasn't any where near qualifying to participate in the ACA. It was a plan for fools only, so I didn't sign up.
When I was off insurance, I thought I might be coming down with strep throat, so I went to a hospital and asked how much a test would cost. They told me around $60. I didn't have strep throat, but was charged $600.00. Pretty expensive price for a throat swab. I went to the grocery store a week later and saw a home test kit for $10.
Why are hospitals named after saints? I thought about getting a tea shirt that says "DON'T TAKE ME TO SAINT MARKS OR I'LL KILL YOU", just in case I got hit by a car or something.
I'm 62 and got my first ever colonoscopy. A $1700.00 procedure for free. Real nice knowing I don't have prostrate cancer.
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 9:32 am PT...
Out of curiosity, I Googled "Starbridge".
On December 31, 2013 all Starbridge and Fundamental Care plans offered by Connecticut General Life Insurance Company ended.
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 9:36 am PT...
Kyle D:
Excellent!
You are more compassionate then I.
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
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Kyle D
said on 3/2/2015 @ 10:59 am PT...
@ Larry Bergan -
If we lose our compassion for others, we are no better than the selfish, subhuman oligarchy and their enablers.
I will live and die on the high road. The epitaph of Pope Gregory VII in Salerno says the following:
"I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile."
Remove "iniquity" with "inequity" and that about sums up how I feel most days.
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 1:33 pm PT...
Kyle D said:
If we lose our compassion for others, we are no better than the selfish, subhuman oligarchy and their enablers.
I agree, but sometimes it seems like some of these people would rather see the entire country go down rather then see someone get a dime of theirs, even if they're billionaires.
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 1:35 pm PT...
Oops. Sort of meant to have that in blockquotes instead of bold.
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
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Robert
said on 3/2/2015 @ 3:02 pm PT...
Ayn Randers often have a moment like this. As a reference, boingboing: "Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).
As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."
But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so."
High irony for selfish morons.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 3/2/2015 @ 4:15 pm PT...
Ayn Rand was the first person I thought of when I saw this post.
I Guess she didn't have a medical savings account either. Of course even if you're single, you couldn't be assured of having enough health savings for a bad injury if you had a few million put away.
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
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Richard Meek
said on 3/3/2015 @ 5:31 am PT...
That ObamaCare UNaffordable Care Act is sooooo great that the ones that shoved it down "We the People's" throats made certain that THEY exempted THEMSELVES from it. Am I the ONLY one here that understands that, huh?
Congress should NEVER impose on the public that which they would exempt themselves from.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
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Randy D
said on 3/3/2015 @ 9:58 am PT...
If only the MEEK would inherit a brain. Too stupid a troll call to even bother with.
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
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Brad Friedman
said on 3/3/2015 @ 11:32 am PT...
Randy D - Please be careful about the personal attacks, if you don't mind. (Of course, I can do them, since anybody is allowed to personally attack me, but commenters cannot use personal attacks against each other, as per our few rules for posting comments.) Just a friendly reminder.
Richard Meek - I'm sorry you've been conned. So allow me to help you out. Congress neither "shoved health insurance reform down your throat", nor, more importantly, are they "exempt" from it. In fact, unlike the rest of the country, they are actually forced to sign up for plans from the exchange.
Since, unlike other Americans who work for someone, they are forced to sign up for a plan via the exchange (something Republicans added to the ACA as a poison pill, which didn't work), they have been allowed to use the health care allowance given to them by Congress towards the plan they purchase on the exchange.
It would be as if you were FORCED to buy a plan off the exchange, rather than use the plan your employer had negotiated for you. Members of Congress and their staff are now forced to do that (and only members of Congress!) So the money that was used to pay for their plans before ACA is now put towards their plans purchased via the exchange.
Feel more informed now? If so, you're welcome. If not, then I'm still sorry you continue to choose to be conned.
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
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blurkel
said on 3/6/2015 @ 11:28 am PT...
Maybe Cliven Bundy will cover this coward's medical costs. The public shouldn't have to shell out since he didn't do the job he was hired to do.
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
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steele brownlee
said on 3/10/2015 @ 6:12 am PT...
I printed this article to show mom and also go fund me site. I like this comment
$10
John Osborne
1 day ago
Hi Sheriff Mac, I hope you get well soon and your medical bills will get paid. Here in Vermont we have an insurance marketplace tied to the ACA, and while I personally do not need it, being on Medicare and having some extra insurance from my employment before I retired, I am glad for all the people in Vermont who can get coverage and not worry about medical bills as they face their medical problems. I hope this experience helps you to understand why universal medical care is so important. If not, there is something else to consider: the US is one of the most unhealthy of first-world nations, in part because so many people cannot afford to have preventive care, and so get really sick before going to the hospital ER, where they get emergency care, but not much more. A nation full of sick people is not a productive or happy nation; many statistics bear this out. Universal health care is not just good for the people who cannot afford health care, it is good for the US as a whole, making a more productive and stronger population. May you find in your heart the compassion that you have asked for in others.