How far would you go to get your health needs taken care of? The cost of health care can be extremely expensive, especially for people who do not have any form of health insurance. A man in North Carolina decided to rob a bank in an attempt to gain access to health care.
There is a well known phrase that goes something like this: “Desperate times call for desperate measures”. Apparently, times had gotten quite desperate for James Marone, a 59 year old man from Gaston County, North Carolina. He decided to rob a bank in the hopes that this would get his medical needs taken care of.
James Marone has no health insurance. He is 59, which means that he is still several years away from being able to qualify for Medicare. Three years ago he worked as a delivery man for Coca-Cola, a job he had been doing for seventeen years before that career ended.
It is unclear if he had health insurance through Coca-Cola when he was working for them, or if he did not. The majority of Americans who have health insurance are able to afford it because they are getting it through their employer. Typically, if a person leaves a job, (or is laid off from a job), the person can use COBRA to extend their employer sponsored health insurance a bit longer. The biggest problem with COBRA, however, is that the premiums are too expensive for most people to afford, especially if the person has become unemployed.
In any case, James Marone found himself in a situation that might be similar to the fate of a lot of other Americans. He was unemployed, and could not find steady employment. He started having medical problems, and he was living on his dwindling savings. He had two ruptured disks, an unidentified growth on his chest, and a problem with his left foot.
His solution was to rob a bank. He handed the teller a note that said that he was robbing the bank, and asked the teller to give him only one dollar. His intent was to make certain that he was sent to jail, so that he would have access to free medical care. Technically, it isn’t “free”, because it would be paid for by money that came from taxpayers. But, for him, there wouldn’t be any bills involved. The rest of his plan involves staying in jail for just enough years so that he can retire when he gets out, and move into a condo.
He has admitted that he is aware that the might be manipulating the court system in order to get medical care. His plan may not work as well as he’d hoped it would. Since he only took a dollar from the bank, he has been charged with larceny, and not bank robbery. This could result in less jail time than he planned on.
Image by rychlepozicky.com on Flickr