Jul 26 - Uninsured Colorado shooting victim faces $2 mln medical bill

Lying in the hospital in an induced coma after a gunshot through his eye, 23-year old Aurora shooting victim Caleb Medley has no idea that he’s facing $2 million in medical costs.

Medley lost his right eye, is suffering brain damage and has been put in a medically induced coma.

“Evil came to them through a man that opened fire in that theater,”friends and family wrote on a website to raise money for Medley’s hospital expenses.“Caleb was struck in the face by the gun fire.”

While he is being treated in the intensive care unit, his wife gave birth to a baby boy just one floor away. But the soon-to-be father may wake up to a life of debt and expenses that could forever ruin his young family’s finances.

“Caleb and his family will be struggling with these hospital bills for the rest of their lives,”said Michael West, a friend of the victim.

The young man, relying on a ventilator to breathe, has no health insurance – but that is not an issue for some of the other victims. Some of the hospitals treating the Batman shooting victims have said they will limit or completely cover their patients’ medical bills.

But unfortunately for Medley, the hospital that is treating him has not made any promises. The University of Colorado Hospital, where Medley is being treated, is among the state’s top two safety net hospitals and, combined with the Denver Health Medical Center, provided $740 million in free care in 2011. Still, it would not say whether it would provide Medley any[..]istance, forcing friends and family of the seriously injured victim to find ways to raise money.

“Many of these people I[..]ume will need prolonged and expensive rehabilitation after their immediate injuries are dealt with, and that seems precisely what hospitals today are less and less willing to cover out of their own funds, and no law requires that they do so, as far as I’m aware,” said Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Being unsure whether or not Medley’s hospital would pay any of his expenses, the shooting victim’s friends and family have set a goal of raising $500,000 to cover his hospital bills.

“All the money that is donated is going straight to Caleb, Katie and Hugo to help them with medical bills, getting back on their feet, help them with baby items,”West said.

But even if that fundraising goal is reached, it would not cover a bill as high as $2 million, potentially leaving the new family in an unfortunate financial situation.

And while Medley’s hospital expenses may be higher than most, he is among 1.5 million Coloradoans – one third of the state – that have inadequate or no health insurance, according to a 2011 report by The Colorado Trust. The highest uninsured rate is among adults between 18 and 34, and many of the injured shooting victims fall into that group.

But while Warner Bros. and Americans across the nation are donating vast amounts of money to help cover medical costs for the shooting victims, some of the hospitals themselves cannot even promise to provide any sort of[..]istance.

Instead of relieving the financial stress glaring at Medley’s family and the 22 other shooting victims it is treating, the University of Colorado Hospital, on its website, is asking others for donations.

With no right eye and a long recovery period ahead of him, Medley will soon meet his newborn son, his financial fate lying solely in the hands of the hospital that was required by law to treat him.
Source

Those are real problems... That is !!ed up...

[pic] Damn man. Really? 2 Mil?? Regardless of what they did...it's way overpriced. HEALTHCARE IS TOO MUCH !!ING MONEY!

This will probably make people support the health care law though [pic]

someone just needs to get all the proof of his situation together post some pics of it up on reddit and he'll have $4 mil in like a week

people on reddit love !! like that...

how about they just don't charge them...

oh wait, its America

!! that !!....holmes !![..] should have to pay for that !!

Reddit is so wholesome its !!ing sick.....I come back to BX to clean myself of all that generosity

You know it.....!! socialism, itsl all about capitalism. Strong survive and the weak die. No health care, sorry guy rich companies and hospitals don't care. Doctors want like 9 mill a year for the ahit he does. [pic][pic]

America and Aurora lost

Wait for the conspiracy theorists or the "OBAMACARE!" nuts to pop in. Not realizing that he probably wouldn't even be able to have it anyways.

[pic] $300 for some Tylenol at a hospital, better off dying instead of going in that !!

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so the hospital has to eat that bill? they save the guys life AND they have to foot the bill?

unfortunately the hospital is a business...he didn't have insurance unfortunately and that's why his bill is so damn high...insurance is kinda a scam of course, but it would've made this a lot easier on him longterm instead of the premiums he saved per month in the short-term...

i just don't see why they should have to eat that bill, why is the onus on the hospital? if Zimmerman can get all that dough for k!lling a kid, i'm sure this dude could get more with his story...

it's a sad story, but it's not the hospital's fault...gotta pay the wages of the people saving his life from the surgeons to those that clean-up the ORs, etc...

!!ing d|sgusting [pic]

bet your glad obama passed that health care law[pic]

where the !! is bruce wayne when you need him? dudes a billionaire

He won't have to pay it i'm sure, this is beyond stupid that they'd have to pay 2 million for their man getting shot because OTHER people who's jobs it is to prevent this sort of thing failed at what they do.


It's making headlines, someone with the dough will reach out and pay it off i'm sure.

this world is hell!!!! everything is !!ed up......