A non-funny post.

[theweaselking]

Gordon Atkinson, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, needs your help to score some drugs.

No, really.

And he's a pretty cool guy, so he deserves the good drugs. Especially since he lives in a third-world hellhole.

“[Your daughter] Shelby is uninsurable,” he said. “Forget about her. She’ll never get health insurance.”

“Can’t she get some kind of insurance that wouldn’t cover her for any mental health issues?”

“Nope. She’s not going to get any insurance of any kind as long as she’s taking her medication.”

“That puts us in a hard place,” I said. “If she stops taking that medicine she’ll fall back into that horrible state that she was in. The medicine helps her.”

“I know it,” he said. “But that’s the way it is. You best just forget about her being able to get insurance. Put it out of your mind. No insurance company will touch her with a ten foot pole.

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Not a new story, but as depressing every time I read a variant. And he is a cool guy on top of it. There seems to be some real help offered in the comment threads, so that's good. I wish I could help.

[post-ecdysis.livejournal.com]

It drives me straight up a wall that life insurance is more expensive (or outright unattainable) for people who are successfully treating their depression than it would be for someone who has never had their depression diagnosed.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Man, I like living in a first-world country.

[jirel.livejournal.com]

My insurance goes up every year. This year they decided to charge us more for all non-generic drugs - EVEN WHEN THERE'S NO ALTERNATIVE ON THE MARKET. So, today instead of paying $48 to renew 4 perscriptions, I paid $87. And in the middle of the month I have 4 more to renew, at least 2 (and possibly 3) of them will ALSO be non-generics.

The biggest factor in declaring bankruptcy in the majority of cases now-a-days is medical bills. Looks like I'm going to be on the list.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

I really wouldn't turn that into yet another 'why the hell is your health system so broken' comment, but God damn.* What the hell-arse?

What kind of system is so thoroughly gutted from the inside out that this kind of stuff happens? The next lolbertarian I see I am going to punch in the face over and over and over.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And if enough people do that, "being a clueless asshole", as is so easily identified by support for "libertarian" positions, will become a disqualifying factor for health insurance.

And that's kind of awesome.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

See, my rage is not just poorly-suppressed impulse control it is social commentary.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

If libertarians had their way, people wouldn't be taxed so much and they'd be able to buy good insurance from an insurance industry that's actively competing with the rest of the market to produce a worthwhile service.

Not that that will ever happen, but that's the ideal.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No, if the Internet Libertarians had their way, people wouldn't be taxed so much and they'd be able to afford insurance that only pays for things that cost less than the insurance, where the company refuses to cover anything for any reason at any time, and where the individual has absolutely no recourse against the company. And there would be one and only one insurance company, with many many different names and logos, because *collaboration is always more profitable than competition*.

Besides, even assuming their fantasy world *did* somewhat reflect reality, you still have the fundamental facts that medical care is a necessity, with totally inelastic demand, where the customer is *by definition* incapable of self-assessing need and incapable of making an educated comparison between two sets of care - especially at a time when they actually need the care.

As has been shown everywhere in the world, throughout human history, every single time without fail, the free market cannot handle health care efficiently.

[unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com]

Actually, i think it would have involved more insurance company executes burned at the stake.

And most of us libertarians arent insane, we want minimal regulation, not no regulation.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Yep, we non-insane libertarians never get the upgrade to big-L Libertarians.

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

I just really want to sponsor people like that for immigration. It hurts me! Because I am a bleeding heart liberal communist Canuck! And I wish he could be too, so he and his daughter can get the care they need! Exclamation point!

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I've been reading his journal for a while, he's one of the good religious people out there. Too bad more aren't like him in that regard. :(