Daily Kos points us to this story from a blog called Thus Spake Zuska.
My sister is a member of the fitness club where that shooting took place. It was just chance that she was not there, and not in that fitness class, the night the shooting took place. My gratefulness for her safety has been tempered by my sadness for the women who were killed and injured there.
Well, just imagine my thoughts today when I talked to my sister, and she let me know what was going on for one of the women who was shot at the fitness club. The young woman had recently graduated college and therefore had “aged out” of coverage on her parents’ health insurance. She did not have coverage provided through a job. I can’t tell you why she didn’t purchase coverage on the open market – because it was out of her financial reach, because she didn’t think she needed it (being young and healthy), who knows, maybe she had a pre-existing condition that made it impossible for her to get it (see my next post). Whatever, she didn’t have health insurance.
She is left with a hefty, hefty bill from the hospital due to the surgery and other treatment she needed because some sick fuck asshole came into her fitness club and shot her while she was minding her own business, exercising, trying to maintain her own health.
So her friends and family recently sponsored a friggin’ car wash to raise funds to pay her hospital bills. Yes. A car wash.
This is the status quo that people like Tom Coburn want to preserve. This woman should not be facing outrageous and potentially bankrupting medical bills. Let’s fix our broken health care system and leave car washes for Little League teams.