Lead Plaintiff In Health Care Reform Suit Files For Bankruptcy With Medical Debt

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Mar 9, 2012 at 11:30 am

The lead plaintiff in the legal case against the Affordable Care Act filed for bankruptcy after accruing nearly $5,000 in medical debt. According to the Los Angeles Times, plaintiff Mary Brown was uninsured last fall when her husband’s medical bills stacked up to $4,500. That, combined with other debt they had accumulated, led the couple to file for bankruptcy:

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?”

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,” according to Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Brown may be focused on health care choices, but American taxpayers have another concern. Sixty-two percent of people who file for personal bankruptcy do so because of medical bills, placing those debt burdens on the American taxpayer. And while Brown’s husband may have run up his medical bills, others take the less medically responsible road and decline preventive treatment so they can avoid high medical bills in the short term (but risk more problems later).

Other opponents of the Affordable Care Act may argue for a consumer-driven market on health care plans, the fact is that the plans people chose, or their choice not to have one, effects everyone. The Affordable Care Act, on the other hand, may already be slowing health care costs.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/09/441386/lead-plaintiff-in-health-care-reform-case-filed-bankruptcy-with-medical-debt/?mobile=nc

Well ignorance is a hard thing to over come sometimes.

The tax payers are still paying those medical bills. Better to have a plan and a set up before hand and pay for it that way then at a higher rate for the emergency care later.

You know they could apply their ignorance to the fact that they do have insurance(Congresscare). Pretend they don't have it and then when they need it, it'll just be there suddenly.

What will happen in 2014, a lot of families will pay the fine which is cheaper then should they need healthcare suddenly they will buy it because no one can be turned down.

From the first time I heard about this ridiculousness from an over reaching president called Obamacare I've said they should have put a cap on what insurance companies can charge and force them to cover everything in their top tier package. Make it so all insurance is the price regardless who the company is, to me this would have been an overhaul to our healthcare system.

$4,500 i'snt that much.
It also stated the medical bills ALONG with other debt they accumulated was the reason not just the medical bills.

So stating it's a medical issue that caused them to file bancrupcy is false.

I'd say they are irresponsible by getting into so much other debt that was the majority of the cause.

I'm not a big fan of the Obamacare thingy,but it needs to be tweeked a bit to where every American can have medical coverage just like the inmates in prison,they have good medical and dental coverage paid for by the tax payers shouldn't the Americans outside the fence have coverage also?
It makes no sense to me why this is.We have tons of socialist government programs but yet the biggest one missing is the citizens themselves being medically covered.