In 2011, a 59-year-old man named James Verone robbed a bank. He did so by handing the teller a note asking for one dollar. Just one dollar. After receiving his dollar, Verone sat down and waited for the police to arrive.
Verone, who suffered from chronic health problems, was a delivery driver and had recently lost his job and, with it, his health insurance. As a result, he couldn’t afford the medical care he needed to live. He knew that in prison he would receive that care even without insurance, so he committed the robbery simply to survive. He was sentenced to one year in prison, during which he received life-saving medical treatment.
A civilized country should never allow any of its citizens to become so desperate for medical care that they have to commit armed robbery just to survive. Making people pay exorbitant fees for the medicines and treatments they need simply to generate profit is an insane injustice

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