Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank.
Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gaston, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up.
He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week.
Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found new work driving a truck, but it didn't last. Eventually, he took a part-time position at the convenience store.
But Verone's body wasn't up to it. The bending and lifting made his back ache. He had problems with his left foot, making him limp. He also suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.
Then he noticed a protrusion on his chest. "The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," Verone told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."
The article suggest Obama's health bill would fix this, but of course it's not specific about how. Interesting story, though. And I hope he gets the treatment he needs. Seems to me he'd qualify for Medicaid, but not enough info to know for sure.
Verone also presented the view that if the United States had a health-care system which offered people more government support, he wouldn't have had to make the choice he did.
It would be interesting to understand his thought process and reasoning for thinking he had no option to go to a public hospital and qualify for indigent care. With all the demagoguing and constant bombardment by media and politicians about health care costs and the uninsured "crisis", its not surprising that some people are confused and misinformed about the best way to get help. I would think a public hospital or community clinic would be a better choice than a prison hospital. Have we put so much fear, confusion, and misinformation into the minds of the general public that some think this act of desperation is their only option? I'm not saying his options were good, but public hospitals do take these kind of patients, emergency or not. Get in line and fill out paperwork, something we all are going to need to get used to soon.
Here is another perspective on this "main stream" story.
A hospital in Gastonia, N.C., — Gaston Memorial Hospital — offers discounts up to 100% to low-income patients. There's also a free health clinic just five miles from where Verone robbed that bank, and many more in nearby Charlotte.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
