The New York City book publisher arranged to use money raised in her memory to buy up the medical debt of others – and then pay it off, according to a website which assisted her philanthropic effort and as of Friday had collected nearly all of her six-figure goal.
“A note to my friends: If you’re reading this, I have passed away,” read a recent post on McIntyre’s account at X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – which partly served to detail her campaign. “I’m so sorry. It’s horseshit and we both know it. The cause was stage four ovarian cancer.”
After describing how much she, her family and her friends loved each other, McIntyre’s account linked to her campaign at RIP Medical Debt’s website. Her accompanying farewell message added: “To celebrate my life, I’ve arranged to buy up others’ medical debt and then destroy the debt. I am so lucky to have had access to the best medical care at [the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York] and am keenly aware that so many in our country don’t have access to good care.”
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I’ve argued in a few other posts with people who say shit like “Do you have access to healthcare? Did a hospital turn you away?”
My answer to them is to go fuck yourselves, all of you shitty rude “fuck you, I got mine, pull yourself up by your bootstraps” motherfuckers.
What we have access to isn’t healthcare for one. It’s sick-care, as the notion of leveraging preventative care is laughable for the majority of Americans as high deductible plans have resorted to more cost cutting measures that are ultimately self defeating. What we are left with is the specter of financial ruin hanging over every health concern we experience in our lives. People go from their 30’s into their 40’s and forego exams, put off any procedures, and often wait until it’s far too late to treat something entirely preventable.
Last year a video got very popular when a guy was hanging up lights and fell of his ladder, tweaking his leg. His awesome neighbor came running over asking him not to move, and shouting out to another bystander to call an ambulance, as it was very clear he damaged his leg if not breaking it. As soon as the victim heard the words “call an ambulance” he snaps up declaring that he’s fine, and there’s no need. 50 years ago it would have been perfectly acceptable and find for the average person to get medical attention for a fall like that.
Look at the most recent healthcare worker’s strike over the simple fact that they themselves cannot afford many of the procedures they themselves perform.
The United States is in a second gilded age, and we need to rake the wealthy over the coals. If we continue to have only prosperity for a small few, then those few are going to find their heads in baskets soon.
Has lemmy got an equivalent to r/orphancrushingmachine? Because this would be perfect
Yes, it is called [email protected]
And the cool part is that they don’t even know it.
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Very distressing. And very distressing that it’s even necessary.
Ffs, America! Wake the heck up. Vote for a party that actually wants to change this insane healthcare system. In every other developed country, this wouldn’t even be an issue.
I’m guessing in every other developed country, the medical industry doesn’t have a stranglehold on the government.
We can’t. Unless we manage to do away with FPTP and install some version of RCV. It would also be useful to eliminate the Electoral College while we are at it, but I’m afraid that will have to wait till we get RCV as well
Very wise of her. Though this is peak capitalism, living in a country to depend on private donations.
It seems the world lost a good one. Good on ya, Casey.
Wow. What a legacy. The idea of medical debt for necessary treatment is so wild to me though.
its the number 1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the united states. people go their whole lives saving, even having insurance and lose it all dying penniless.
yay free market.
It’s also a way that corporations aka wealthy people drain elderly people of their resources towards the end of their lives. Hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that could have helped their children achieve some measure of financial independence instead goes to medical bills. This functions as a method of preventing generational wealth from accumulating, thus defeating class mobility.
I’ve got around $5000 of it. I wish I could have had some of it erased by this lady, but I’m glad others did.
I envy you. My partner is still paying off the attempted life saving medical efforts from their passed previous partner. Been almost a decade but here she is, still making monthly payments.
How is that her responsibility?
They were married.
Debt to an individual dies with that individual unless the other person cosigned or if the debt was tied to collateral. They can sue the estate, but it’s a slog to do that and basically no one will. Debt collectors will, however, claim that all of this will happen and threaten away to the point where people either get scared or tired of the harassment and give up and “make payments”. IANAL, but I went through this with my Dad when he passed. We were able to have his estate (a 5 figure sum) pass down to me without the medical debt collectors getting any of it.
I can’t super tell if you are trying to fact check, debunk or simply trying to give more info about the topic, so forgive if this sounds curt. But I can assure that this is the situation and she spoke to lawyers trying to get it discharged. I’m not about to ask her for more details because obviously this is an emotional subject, but what I’ve already posted is my understanding of the events and timeline. Idk what else to say.
Neither, just passing on my experience. I didn’t have any lawyers involved and it was pretty much telling them to fuck off and not paying the bills that came in his name.
In America all debt does not, in fact, die with the individual. It can be passed down to spouses … which is about as fucked up as it gets.
Here is a list of debts that can be passed down.
To me as well. I mean my nation’s is in rough shape, but at least we have universal health care.
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As does the UK and a fair portion of the EU.
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Gotcha. :)
Non Americans
It’s really nice that she was able to pay off 1.5 other people’s debt!
Debt collectors purchase medical debt from banks for cents on the dollar. The fundraiser is going through an agency that’s does this so they can help far more people.
John Oliver on LWT did the same thing in 2016, purchasing $15 million in debt for $60k. Here’s that story.
That’s all great, but I think you missed the joke. The joke was that US healthcare is so expensive that people find themselves with multiple millions of debt from a single disease or accident. The fact that selling the debt is a form of profit enterprise is the duh dun tsss of the joke.
Very kind of her. Back to surviving on the largesse of the rich again are we?
God, I love our medical system.
Found the hospital administrator!
