Just Off Insular Senate Floor, Life of the Uninsured Intrudes

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24-When senators debate health care, they usually speak in abstract terms about soaring health costs and the plight of the uninsured.

But just 20 feet from the Senate chamber is a young man who knows those problems all too well from personal experience. The man, Sergio A. Olaya, runs the Capitol elevators on which the senators ride. Whenever the Senate is in session, he is on duty.

Mr. Olaya, 21, is struggling with $255,000 of medical bills incurred by his mother before she died in April from an aggressive form of brain cancer.

His experience highlights the problems of the uninsured, from which members of Congress are usually insulated. The leading Democratic presidential candidates say all Americans should have coverage as good as what Congress has.

As a government employee, Mr. Olaya has health insurance. But his mother, like 47 million other Americans, was uninsured.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/washington/25health.html?ref=health accessed today.

[oramar]

Excellent article, no truth like the the real truth. Remember not everyone that advocates for health insurance for everyone wants goverment sponsered health insurance. In Pa our Gov. Rendel is proposing a program that cover 90%(or better) of Pennsylvanians via traditional methods. One thing I can't understand is why the kid is being dunned for his mother's bills. I doubt is really his responsibility under any state law or federal law. They may in fact be entitled to her estate but after that they can whistle for it.

[CRNA2007]

I would also like to know why he is on the hook for his mother's medical bills? Those should be settled from her estated. Sound like a typical left wing agenda driven news piece that we consistently get from the NY Times full of half truths and typical exaggerations and inconsistencies.

Excellent article, no truth like the the real truth. Remember not everyone that advocates for health insurance for everyone wants goverment sponsered health insurance. In Pa our Gov. Rendel is proposing a program that cover 90%(or better) of Pennsylvanians via traditional methods. One thing I can't understand is why the kid is being dunned for his mother's bills. I doubt is really his responsibility under any state law or federal law. They may in fact be entitled to her estate but after that they can whistle for it.

[Kyrshamarks, BSN, RN]

It also sounds like poor financial planning on the mother and sons part. Sho could have signed the house over to him under her lifetime allowable gist or even set it up in a trust and the house would have been protected from the bills. Before anyone also says that costs a lot of money, no it does not. There are free legal services all over the counrty that would file the paperwork for this. The son is not liable for the mopthers medical bills, the same people who will pay for them are the same people who would pay for them under your vaunted universal insurance...WE WILL PAY for them.

[pickledpepperRN]

When my grandfather died of lung cancer my grandmother sold her home and worked many years to pay the medical bills.

She felt a moral and ethical obligation to ensure that the doctors and hospital personnel were paid for their work.

Perhaps that young man also has a sense of honor.

[CRNA2007]

I applaud her for her sense of obligation and it is the right thing to do. But that doesn't happen anymore that I have seen. You might be right about him having a sense of honor, but the article says they are hounding him from her estate which they definitely have a right to do as he also has an obligation to pay from her estate. I like how the NY Times uses the term hounding as if they should just write off all their expenses. How about we insitute a 1.00 "user fee" not a tax of course to every newspaper sold in America to pay for everyones health care. Would the NY times be in favor of that? Or would they be "hounding" Senators Clinton and Schumer to kill the bill?

When my grandfather died of lung cancer my grandmother sold her home and worked many years to pay the medical bills.

She felt a moral and ethical obligation to ensure that the doctors and hospital personnel were paid for their work.

Perhaps that young man also has a sense of honor.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

My article isn't opening.

So are they looking for money over and above the estate? Because, frankly, it always chaps my butt to see wealthy people declared indigent because their kids were smart enough to snag their assets before putting them into the county home on the public teat - and they do.

He doesn't get to keep anything if she has an estate less than her bills. Inheritance isn't a right.

[oramar]

My article isn't opening.

So are they looking for money over and above the estate? Because, frankly, it always chaps my butt to see wealthy people declared indigent because their kids were smart enough to snag their assets before putting them into the county home on the public teat - and they do.

He doesn't get to keep anything if she has an estate less than her bills. Inheritance isn't a right.

Couple of things. I think it is the honorable thing to do to take responsibility for debts. However, years ago I worked on a heart transplant unit and a couple of the well to do patients confided in me that they had hid their assest inorder to have the state pay for their transplant. That blistered my butt because I knew other's were hocking everything they owned to pay for their loved ones transplant. I think the laws have since been adjusted and it is harder to pull that trick. If you want to see every crooked trick in the book just watch what the wealthy do. As for that kid being responsible for his mother's hospital bills. $350,000 means a life of indebtedness and servitude for the kid if he is responsible for them. His life is over before it has started.

[lindarn]

I would also like to know why he is on the hook for his mother's medical bills? Those should be settled from her estated. Sound like a typical left wing agenda driven news piece that we consistently get from the NY Times full of half truths and typical exaggerations and inconsistencies.

My educated guess, is that his mother has no estate. I also don't think that he is responsible to repay his mother' s medical bills. Unless he had power of attorney over her, and was a joint owner on her bank account.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I think it is the honorable thing to do to take responsibility for debts.

....

As for that kid being responsible for his mother's hospital bills. $350,000 means a life of indebtedness and servitude for the kid if he is responsible for them. His life is over before it has started.

No, you misunderstand. Up to and including the assets. Nothing beyond. No, no, no. Not my point at all!

I can't access the article.

[CRNA2007]

What you are missing is the fact they are doing nothing illegal. While I don't agree with giving away all of your assets to forgo your debt, they are following the "rules" that are made up by people in Washington. The very ones who bemoan the rich but set up sweetheart rules like this and then complain when someone takes advantage of them.

Couple of things. I think it is the honorable thing to do to take responsibility for debts. However, years ago I worked on a heart transplant unit and a couple of the well to do patients confided in me that they had hid their assest inorder to have the state pay for their transplant. That blistered my butt because I knew other's were hocking everything they owned to pay for their loved ones transplant. I think the laws have since been adjusted and it is harder to pull that trick. If you want to see every crooked trick in the book just watch what the wealthy do. As for that kid being responsible for his mother's hospital bills. $350,000 means a life of indebtedness and servitude for the kid if he is responsible for them. His life is over before it has started.

[Medic04]

I do not think he is responsible UNLESS

1.

He co signed her into the hospital and it states on there, if the signer cannot pay as witness the "other" will. Then he should pay.

That is why my husband NEVER signs when I go in the hospital.

2. If she has a house then he needs to sell it and pay them.

3. get a lawyer to see what can be done