http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...out/man-robs-bank-to-get-medical-care-in-jail 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." Verone knew he needed help--and he didn't want to be a burden on his sister and brothers. He applied for food stamps, but they weren't enough either. So he hatched a plan. On June 9, he woke up, showered, ironed his shirt. He mailed a letter to the Gazette, listing the return address as the Gaston County Jail. "When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me," Verone wrote in the letter. "This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body." Then Verone hailed a cab to take him to the RBC Bank. Inside, he handed the teller his $1 robbery demand. "I didn't have any fears," said Verone. "I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police." The teller was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Verone, meanwhile, was taken to jail, just as he'd planned it. Because he only asked for $1, Verone was charged with larceny, not bank robbery. But he said that if his punishment isn't severe enough, he plans to tell the judge that he'll do it again. His $100,000 bond has been reduced to $2,000, but he says he doesn't plan to pay it. In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with the other inmates. He's already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a doctor on Friday. He said he's hoping to receive back and foot surgery, and get the protrusion on his chest treated. Then he plans to spend a few years in jail, before getting out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach. 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. "If you don't have your health you don't have anything," Verone said. The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health-care overhaul passed by Congress last year, was designed to make it easier for Americans in situations like Verone's to get health insurance. But most of its provisions don't go into effect until 2014. As it is, Verone said he thinks he chose the best of a bunch of bad options. "I picked jail."
We need a national health care system, insurance companies and lobbyists are the bane of our country. DD
Let's start a health insurance company that targets a profit margin of 0%. The max salary the company will give to any employee (including executive management) is $100,000.00. With all revenue covering costs, greed will be minimized and lobbying will be insignificant. Who's with me?
we may not agree on much but this is one thing we definitely agree on its a huge black mark on this country that we dont have something like this. Worry whether or not something is covered or not covered by insurance. What this man did was ingenious yet sad that he had to
It's a real shame that this model of running a business doesn't catch on. Employees are paid, and society benefits. That'd be nice... and impossible in a world where public policy seems to be dictated by the kind of suit-wearing profit whores who truly don't give **** how many people suffer for their wealth. Ayn Rand was a sad, lonely, and deluded woman.
Easy to say, hard to do obviously. Even if everyone agreed... where would the money come from? Even that is a source of disagreement between folks who feel the same way about universal healthcare. What do we cut? Do we raise taxes? Cut defense spending (my favorite)? Every other first world country has had to face these decisions and managed. Unfortunately, they didn't have the ideological imbeciles that somehow think universal healthcare translates to socialism. Fortunately, as time passed, those imbeciles will die off.
Reminds me of years ago in court when I saw a homeless man who was charged with hanging out in the St. Joseph's emergency room during a cold spell who was charged with trespass. I saw a conservative judge questioning why his atty and he accepted the DA's first offer iirc of 3 or was it 6 months. The court appointed atty told the judge that his client told the atty to accept the offer without countering because he wanted shelter. The judge had mercy and accepted the plea.
Yes clearly this business model is not in popular use. It would help if you could come up with a catchy name for it, something that really lets people know what it is all about. Hmm, it is organized, so that should be apparent somehow. Primarily though, the idea is that profit is not the motive, so that should really come first. The best I can come up with is no-gain group, but maybe other people might have ideas. Ideally something that has an easy to remember acronym.
Yeah ... and non-profits would be great if they weren't almost exclusively charities. I'd like to see more non-profits (and not-for-profits), and the time is getting near where more and more people are going to want them.
Some things just shouldn't be left to the profit motive. Two of those things are the military and medicine.
b-b-b-but you have a constitutional right not to ever have health! It's the 10th amendment or something. I read it in a beck.
Doubt it. The way things are going, ignorant people continue to live and breed in this country. 15-20 years from now, their offspring will be just as susceptible to fringe-ideological drivel spouted by pawns of Big Business (whose only concern is creation of more capital for a small group of people).
Then prevent complete morons from voting. Institute a general knowledge and common sense test that'll keep these heathen pieces of s*** from ever spewing their ideals or backwards thinking at us. I have to admit. Big Business did a very good job. Keeping Socialism in the back of everybodies minds.
