I hate to be the voice of conservative reason with a personal responsibility message, but shouldn't Kent have paid for medical insurance from the money he earned from his campaign chairman position? I don't have the FEC figures handy but Im sure he was paid plenty enough to have health insurance, pre-existing condition or not.
There's consequences to all of us for not paying for health insurance. Why should Kent's bills be paid by Ron Paul supporters when they already should have been? I understand charity donations but I just had to say it. There was a lot of money pissed away during the campaign. I just find it ironic that now there are chip-in's for Kent's medical bills.
I've been holding off saying anything like this because I knew I would be instantly "flamed" (and probably still will be).
But I would most *emphatically* agree with the above; and the rest really needs to be said as well.
1) Kent made a decent salary as chairman of the campaign. It was not an obscene amount, but certainly a larger salary than many of the supporters; and certainly sufficient to cover a health insurance policy of some type (especially for a single man).
2) With a regular balance of $5 Million held in reserve, the campaign could certainly have AFFORDED to provide at least SOME form of health insurance for the "full-time salaried employees" -- that it did NOT do so is a form of negligence and poor management (perhaps yet another sign of incompetence and inexperience). Heck they could have even SELF-INSURED -- at least to a few hundred K.
3) As Mr. Snyder himself was the CHAIRMAN of the campaign, he was THE main person responsible for seeing that such "full-time employees" of the campaign either received health insurance and/or a sufficient salary to cover them purchasing said insurance (at least a "catastrophic coverage" policy -- such policies, BTW are fairly cheap, on the order of a couple thousand dollars for a year, even for a man of Mr. Snyder's age. And a 49 year old single professional man with no children and no direct dependents really OUGHT to have saved substantial assets set aside against a rainy day... there is really no excuse for him NOT to have done so... this is NOT a 21 year-old college kid we are talking about.)
4) If Mr. Snyder had a "pre-existing condition" then
certainly HE was aware of that fact, and therefore he needed to assume the appropriate PERSONAL responsibility for it and to secure whatever he could for health insurance, and/or to save sufficient funds in health savings accounts or other assets to cover such expenses.
5) In addition to "insurance" the message of "personal responsibility" also extends to taking care of your own health in a PROPER fashion... the story that he somehow ran himself "ragged" and into the grave -- while it is a "nice thing to say" in a eulogy -- is difficult to believe in reality. (Run ragged by a campaign that had so few events? By one which did so little advertising? What? How?) And even if there is a smidgen of truth to it, it does NOT reflect well on his (or the other campaign managers); if he was in fact showing signs of exhaustion, then he needed to back down and take care of his health; and others need to take responsibility as well ...anything else is EGO and BS.
6) Unless he unexpectedly caught some rare fungal or viral respiratory infection -- and I think if that were the case the root cause WOULD have been openly stated -- well, healthy 49 year old athletic people do NOT die from pneumonia. Otherwise, only a "pre-existing" condition that drastically damaged his immune system (and which would then make it virtually impossible to get insurance) would make him so readily vulnerable to pneumononia.
7) If he in fact HAD such a "pre-existing condition" which made him so susceptible, then he had an ADDITIONAL personal responsibility to maintain his health in highest order... and to burden neither the "system" nor his family, nor anyone else.
8) As many other here have stated -- the level of understanding concerning WHO is legally liable for Mr. Snyder's medical bills seems to be fairly lacking on the part of the people who set up this fund. While I have no doubt their heart is in the right place, they are engaging in something akin to "fear-mongering" and "guilt-trips" and (IMHO) ridiculously requesting cash when the final bills are probably still unknown.
Long and short of this is that -- once again -- the supporters are NOT being fully informed, but are instead being fed half-truths and euphemisms. The "pre-existing condition" which "prevented" him from getting insurance has a name -- they can certainly keep it quiet -- but anyone donating has a right to a bit more honesty.
All in all, a sad demonstration of how personal IRresponsibility (on so many levels) plays out. It is yet another testimony to how -- despite all of the talk -- this "campaign" really did NOT know how to "walk the walk." Ironic and sad.
Flame away folks.