Gymnast Mary Lou Retton ‘fighting for her life,’ daughter says - ESPN
Needless to say, this is a shitty situation and I think we all hope she manages to pull through and is fine - but this line made my jaw drop:
Sometimes, this country really does suck.
Google tells me her net worth is $8m. How does someone with those assets not purchase health insurance and why does she need a go fund me?
I mean I’m all for nationalizing healthcare but she does seem like she could have afforded health insurance even in the individual market.
One site says $8M another says $2M.
Pretty big range, but I’d still think she could get a decent Obamacare policy.
She seems to know about Life Insurance. Maybe she should have done a commercial for health insurance too?
If she has some $$, it sounds to me like her potential inheritors want the public to subsidise that inheritance vs paying for the OOP expenses from her $$.
Either way, its not a good look.
It’s always a little strange when you do a quick search on someone. The opposition to the law for the sex abuse that passed unanimous in Senate and 406-3 in house is an odd choice, especially after listening to the stories from the athletes. I remember them advocating, I didn’t remember her opposition.
As a small government republican, maybe she opposed getting an Obamacare policy on principle.
I’m wondering if the “doesn’t have insurance” comment is more accurately that she doesn’t have insurance that covers her current condition. (Note that I’m not sure exactly what condition she’s suffering from; just heard about her situation on the radio this morning.)
Also, her “net worth” might not be all that liquid. In fact, it might be more along the lines that she’s that wealthy on paper, not in spending capacity.
How does she not have insurance
Doesn’t she live in some $8m mansion or something
You can’t borrow against assets or sell them? I mean seriously, if we lost my wife’s healthcare plan, we’d find a way to pay for health insurance even if it meant liquidating some assets. I realize not everyone can do that but MLR could have.
As for condition, it sounds like complications from a form of pneumonia.
I do wish her a full recovery.
I think Mary Lou can take care of herself financially and it’s her daughter using her fame trying to milk the funds from the public
I can’t imagine someone her age skipping on health insurance unless unable to afford.
I think that if you try to raise funds for “medical care”…but then you take them for yourself, you would end up being charged with fraud.
I think that her being asset rich, but cash poor makes a bit more sense.
Still cheeky though.
per google:
I see that and I think $$$ in property taxes each year.
So could be cash poor if she has limited sources of income with lots of costs.
Having assets doesn’t preclude a person from looking at the cost of buying health insurance without government or employer subsidy (how much is a good individual health policy in the US these days?), and naïvely reacting, “that’s outrageously expensive; I’m in decent health and will probably be better off paying out of pocket if an expense arises”.
Then you actually develop an expensive health condition and discover just how inflated list prices for care can be at hospitals.
Then if that person is house-rich/cash-poor…
She can pay property taxes but not health insurance?
So in other words, bad risk analysis?
Pretty much.
I mean, if you have the wealth to do so, and the wherewithal to negotiate prices, there are probably some people among the one percent for whom it would make some sense to self-pay rather than seek conventional health insurance, especially if they do so through some service or program that provides deluxe concierge-like routine care. Maybe that service/program could also be paired with an excess/very high deductible health plan.
However, I don’t work in health. I seem to remember that ACA when passed had provisions that would have discouraged/taxed that sort of thing, but I have no clue how such constraints may have been eroded/ignored with subsequent court rulings and policy decisions.
As someone in her general age range, health insurance availability and affordability until I reach Medicare age was a key consideration when considering retirement.
However, I agree with earlier comments that her reasoning may not have been great whether due to politics or innumeracy. Could also be straight up grifting by the family, which is how you truly MAGA.