$1 Bank Robbery To Get Healthcare

Byrnzie

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... healthcare



US man stages $1 bank robbery to get state healthcare

Unemployed and without health insurance, man in North Carolina has himself arrested in order to receive treatment


Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 June 2011



It was not perhaps the most obvious way of getting a bad back, arthritis and a dodgy foot seen to. But if you're unemployed in North Carolina with no health insurance, there is no obvious way.

So on 9 June James Verone left his Gastonia home, took a ride to a bank and carried out a robbery. Well, sort of.

What he did was hand the clerk a note that said: "This is a bank robbery, please only give me one dollar." Then, as he later told the local NBC news station, he calmly sat in the corner of the bank having told the clerk: "I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police."

Before his peculiarly modest robbery, Verone, 59, sent a letter to the Gaston Gazette. "When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."

He invited the paper to send a reporter to interview him in Gaston county jail, where he is now in custody facing charges of stealing from a person (for just $1 the prosecutors didn't think they could hold up a bank robbery charge).

He told the paper he had lost his job after 17 years as a Coca-Cola delivery man, and with it his health insurance. He was in increasing pain from slipped discs, arthritic joints, a gammy foot and a growth on his chest.

Since being in the jail he has attained his goal: he has been seen by nurses and an appointment with a doctor is booked.

Prince Of Dorkness

I remember a Tea Bagger going on about how "anyone can get free health care... just go to an emergency room and fall down." Because we should have to resort to parlour tricks to see a doctor.

He then explained that he'd needed health care once and didn't have insurance so he had to go and lie about how much he made to get some assistance program.

He then railed against health care legislation because "I shouldn't have to pay for anyone else's insurance..."

And didn't realize we'd paid for his.

(but don't call the baggers stupid... they get upset.)

BinauralJam

This is actually a time honored tradition from what i understand, i've worked with a few guys over the years who have informed me that they broke the law and waited around for the cops so they could get their teeth fixed, it's a good strategic/finanical move.

gimmesometruth27

Stupidity has no political affiliation. But the tea party has a monopoly on selfishness and short sightedness. Good for this guy. Tax payers will be paying much more for his healthcare and shelter and meals etc etc...

Universal healthcare is the only way to go.

brianlux

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Universal healthcare is the only way to go.

Yes! And it's a bloody shame that we don't have it here.

Jeanwah

This will become a common practice, I bet!!

mikepegg44

Jeanwah wrote:

This will become a common practice, I bet!!

this has been done for years, more by homeless people

Blockhead

So were supporting robbery now???
So your perfectly fine with me going into a business or someone house and taking something I don't have/can't afford? Maybe he should put his time and effort into getting another job that could provide insurance instead of commiting a crime. Who is going to hire him now that he has a felony?

Electric_Delta

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Universal healthcare is the only way to go.

Maybe, but not the way Barry's pulling it off. How again are we going to afford it?

Jeanwah

mikepegg44 wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

This will become a common practice, I bet!!

this has been done for years, more by homeless people

Yeah, I knew the homeless have been doing this, but I think it was more for a place to live and care. Now people are doing it purely for the health benefits.

Jason P

Didn't Obama fix this problem a few years ago?

What the fuck passed? Has anyone figured this out yet?

ed243421

makes me sick
some people think
60 year olds who have worked most of their lives
shit jobs
hard labor
who gives coca-cola 17 years of his life
17 years in which coca-cola probably made billions
who gets laid off
and ends up homeless
after working for 40+ years in his 1 life
some people actually think
the only way this guy deserves free medical aid
is if
at 59 years old
with a bad back and other medical issues
he can find employment that offers healthcare
makes me fuckin sick

gimmesometruth27

Electric_Delta wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Universal healthcare is the only way to go.

Maybe, but not the way Barry's pulling it off. How again are we going to afford it?

it doesn't matter. you would oppose it no matter how it is paid for...

gimmesometruth27

Blockhead wrote:

So were supporting robbery now???
So your perfectly fine with me going into a business or someone house and taking something I don't have/can't afford? Maybe he should put his time and effort into getting another job that could provide insurance instead of commiting a crime. Who is going to hire him now that he has a felony?

this is what happens when the poor get desperate. crime rises. "conservatives" fail to see this, and they fail to recognize that doing away with entitlement programs will only encourage this...

Electric_Delta

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

it doesn't matter. you would oppose it no matter how it is paid for...

In it's current over-reaching form, definitely.

Blockhead

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Blockhead wrote:

So were supporting robbery now???
So your perfectly fine with me going into a business or someone house and taking something I don't have/can't afford? Maybe he should put his time and effort into getting another job that could provide insurance instead of commiting a crime. Who is going to hire him now that he has a felony?

this is what happens when the poor get desperate. crime rises. "conservatives" fail to see this, and they fail to recognize that doing away with entitlement programs will only encourage this...

How about instead of just handing them privliages/money, we actually teach them work ethic. Why do you de-value teaching/education of working/earning what you have/saving for the future. Instead you think they should just be handed something so they will get off your back and "hope" they don't commit crimes.
You would make a lousy parent/father...
You make it sound as if its perfectly fine to commit crimes because you don't have something you think you sould be entitled to???

gimmesometruth27

Blockhead wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Blockhead wrote:

So were supporting robbery now???
So your perfectly fine with me going into a business or someone house and taking something I don't have/can't afford? Maybe he should put his time and effort into getting another job that could provide insurance instead of commiting a crime. Who is going to hire him now that he has a felony?

this is what happens when the poor get desperate. crime rises. "conservatives" fail to see this, and they fail to recognize that doing away with entitlement programs will only encourage this...

How about instead of just handing them privliages/money, we actually teach them work ethic. Why do you de-value teaching/education of working/earning what you have/saving for the future. Instead you think they should just be handed something so they will get off your back and "hope" they don't commit crimes.
You would make a lousy parent/father...
You make it sound as if its perfectly fine to commit crimes because you don't have something you think you sould be entitled to???

how about actually addressing the problem? poor unskilled people need to make a life too. they need to be taught and trained. this all goes back to your hatred for anything that helps anybody out with your tax money. maybe the government has to take taxes because people like you would choose to pay nothing?

and you have no right to judge me as a father. i actually have plenty to say about that, and your parenting style, but i will keep that off of the board.. because i see the world differently than you does not make me a lousy parent. one of the reasons i will send my children to public school is so they would not have to be exposed to people with your version of family values. i work with a lot of private school kids at my job every day. the rich, spolied brats who think they are better than everyone else. we refer to them as "Spalding", like the priveleged brat from caddyshack...

the bottom line is if we do not help the poor, the poor will take from the rich, and go to jail so that all of us have to take care of them anyway. i think jesus would say the same...

Blockhead

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

how about actually addressing the problem? poor unskilled people need to make a life too. they need to be taught and trained. this all goes back to your hatred for anything that helps anybody out with your tax money. maybe the government has to take taxes because people like you would choose to pay nothing?

and you have no right to judge me as a father. i actually have plenty to say about that, and your parenting style, but i will keep that off of the board.. because i see the world differently than you does not make me a lousy parent. one of the reasons i will send my children to public school is so they would not have to be exposed to people with your version of family values. i work with a lot of private school kids at my job every day. the rich, spolied brats who think they are better than everyone else. we refer to them as "Spalding", like the priveleged brat from caddyshack...

the bottom line is if we do not help the poor, the poor will take from the rich, and go to jail so that all of us have to take care of them anyway. i think jesus would say the same...

I have said a million times that I would love to pay taxes into social programs that are intended to help and not hand out. Education,planning,workforce education, workshops, etc.. I would love to pay for. But I am not going to support just giving my money out in a monthly check to people. LOL way to generalize the private education... :roll: So because the people are like that in your area means there like that everywhere?
I know you would hate my family values - which is personal responsibility... Thats a foreign term to you..
So your allowed to address the private school kids you work with and generalize and thats how you form your opinion, yet when I talk about the public school inner city kids my wife works with (which is much more than you) my opinion is invalid... You are the most hypocritical post I have ever communicated with... Please have some consistancy please. And please explain why you think just handing someone money (who has no education on how to save, earn it) is helping them?

Electric_Delta

Blockhead wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

how about actually addressing the problem? poor unskilled people need to make a life too. they need to be taught and trained. this all goes back to your hatred for anything that helps anybody out with your tax money. maybe the government has to take taxes because people like you would choose to pay nothing?

and you have no right to judge me as a father. i actually have plenty to say about that, and your parenting style, but i will keep that off of the board.. because i see the world differently than you does not make me a lousy parent. one of the reasons i will send my children to public school is so they would not have to be exposed to people with your version of family values. i work with a lot of private school kids at my job every day. the rich, spolied brats who think they are better than everyone else. we refer to them as "Spalding", like the priveleged brat from caddyshack...

the bottom line is if we do not help the poor, the poor will take from the rich, and go to jail so that all of us have to take care of them anyway. i think jesus would say the same...

I have said a million times that I would love to pay taxes into social programs that are intended to help and not hand out. Education,planning,workforce education, workshops, etc.. I would love to pay for. But I am not going to support just giving my money out in a monthly check to people. LOL way to generalize the private education... :roll: So because the people are like that in your area means there like that everywhere?
I know you would hate my family values - which is personal responsibility... Thats a foreign term to you..
So your allowed to address the private school kids you work with and generalize and thats how you form your opinion, yet when I talk about the public school inner city kids my wife works with (which is much more than you) my opinion is invalid... You are the most hypocritical post I have ever communicated with... Please have some consistancy please. And please explain why you think just handing someone money (who has no education on how to save, earn it) is helping them?

This.

gimmesometruth27

Blockhead wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

how about actually addressing the problem? poor unskilled people need to make a life too. they need to be taught and trained. this all goes back to your hatred for anything that helps anybody out with your tax money. maybe the government has to take taxes because people like you would choose to pay nothing?

and you have no right to judge me as a father. i actually have plenty to say about that, and your parenting style, but i will keep that off of the board.. because i see the world differently than you does not make me a lousy parent. one of the reasons i will send my children to public school is so they would not have to be exposed to people with your version of family values. i work with a lot of private school kids at my job every day. the rich, spolied brats who think they are better than everyone else. we refer to them as "Spalding", like the priveleged brat from caddyshack...

the bottom line is if we do not help the poor, the poor will take from the rich, and go to jail so that all of us have to take care of them anyway. i think jesus would say the same...

I have said a million times that I would love to pay taxes into social programs that are intended to help and not hand out. Education,planning,workforce education, workshops, etc.. I would love to pay for. But I am not going to support just giving my money out in a monthly check to people. LOL way to generalize the private education... :roll: So because the people are like that in your area means there like that everywhere?
I know you would hate my family values - which is personal responsibility... Thats a foreign term to you..
So your allowed to address the private school kids you work with and generalize and thats how you form your opinion, yet when I talk about the public school inner city kids my wife works with (which is much more than you) my opinion is invalid... You are the most hypocritical post I have ever communicated with... Please have some consistancy please. And please explain why you think just handing someone money (who has no education on how to save, earn it) is helping them?

you may have said that a million times, but the more you say it the less i believe it. it is fairly obvious what you are doing. you are taking a position that you know is unrealistic and then resorting to namecalling because you know that your position is not defendable. namecalling is the first sign of a lost argument. you have railed against every social program ad nauseum here for months. that is your opinion, i get that. just don't qualify it by saying i am for this or for that, while railing against medicaid, universal health care, and taxes in general.
as far as education goes, i am assuming that the private education you are speaking of is some sort of faith based school. i am sure that jesus would not agree with most of your positions on these issues, but that is something that you will have to take up with him, if you believe that sort of thing. private schooling is not a necessity.

personal responsibility is not a foreign term to me, but thanks for proving my earlier point.
i happen to live in a reality where not everyone has personal responsibility. i do not get upset about it, actually i like to help people who are down on their luck. i am not sure what insular society you live in or what utopia you are hoping for, but any resemblance between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.

i have stated i have worked at a school as their athletic trainer with a very high concentration of uninsured, publicly insured, and kids below the poverty line. do not try to act like i have not seen poverty. i have seen kids who have had to have a fundraiser held in their honor so they can raise money for the acl reconstruction he needed to play football in college. your wife is not some hero because she sees things like this. this is what we do in a society. we help each other. most of us on here have worked with poor and underpriveleged people.
and how am i the most hypocritical person on here? i stay true to my convictions, and i do not go about qualifying things. fact is, we need universal health care, and until we ge it, these things will continue to happen. and in all honsety i find it quite funny that people get angry about it when a man commits a crime to go to jail where he can have health care. doesn't taht strike you that there is a serious problem with our health care system in this country? where a man can steal $1 and go to jail and reap thousands of dollars of tax money for health care, food and shelter?? i see that as resourceful. and if i were an employer i might hire this guy just because of his creativity.

people call me a saint when i give food or money or health care to the poor, but they call me a socialist when i ask why the poor have no food or money or health care...

inmytree

Blockhead wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

how about actually addressing the problem? poor unskilled people need to make a life too. they need to be taught and trained. this all goes back to your hatred for anything that helps anybody out with your tax money. maybe the government has to take taxes because people like you would choose to pay nothing?

and you have no right to judge me as a father. i actually have plenty to say about that, and your parenting style, but i will keep that off of the board.. because i see the world differently than you does not make me a lousy parent. one of the reasons i will send my children to public school is so they would not have to be exposed to people with your version of family values. i work with a lot of private school kids at my job every day. the rich, spolied brats who think they are better than everyone else. we refer to them as "Spalding", like the priveleged brat from caddyshack...

the bottom line is if we do not help the poor, the poor will take from the rich, and go to jail so that all of us have to take care of them anyway. i think jesus would say the same...

I have said a million times that I would love to pay taxes into social programs that are intended to help and not hand out. Education,planning,workforce education, workshops, etc.. I would love to pay for. But I am not going to support just giving my money out in a monthly check to people. LOL way to generalize the private education... :roll: So because the people are like that in your area means there like that everywhere?
I know you would hate my family values - which is personal responsibility... Thats a foreign term to you..
So your allowed to address the private school kids you work with and generalize and thats how you form your opinion, yet when I talk about the public school inner city kids my wife works with (which is much more than you) my opinion is invalid... You are the most hypocritical post I have ever communicated with... Please have some consistancy please. And please explain why you think just handing someone money (who has no education on how to save, earn it) is helping them?

waaaaa....me no wanna pay taxes for things I don't agree with....waaaaaaaa

as I've said before, welcome to Society...thanks for playing...