

A Reddit tattoo in thanks for bone-marrow-transplant flash fundraiser  - zachinglis
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/a-reddit-tattoo-in-thanks-for-bone-marrow-transplant-flash-fundraiser/2011/12/09/gIQAyUtvhO_blog.html?tid=sm_btn_tw

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jtchang
Bash all you want but this is why we need universal healthcare. We can't have
campaigns like this for every person but I strongly believe that everyone is
entitled to a better life. My hope is that stories like this will raise
awareness of why universal healthcare is sorely needed.

Sometimes I wish there was a technology solution for everything.

~~~
fletchowns
Seriously. I want to live in a country where if you have a 1 in a million
disease like this, you shouldn't have to worry about how much it's going to
cost to get treatment.

Everybody needs healthcare/health insurance, and we are all the same species.
Every single person in this country should be paying the same monthly fee for
coverage. If wind up in a hospital, you should never even have to think about
how it's going to be paid for.

Unfortunately in this country, we have people that will yell out "let them
die" at a presidential debate about what to do with the uninsured, and why we
shouldn't force people to pay for healthcare.

~~~
abduhl
This story is NOT about someone who could not pay medical bills and/or didn't
have insurance. It clearly states in the article that the money was needed
because the parents quit their jobs and was to be used for living expenses.
Please do not recast the story to suit an agenda.

~~~
jtchang
And for a ridiculously difficult procedure like this? Doesn't it make sense in
a way for health care to pay for it?

The parents needed to quit their jobs because they needed to move to NC. They
needed to move because of the procedure. Yes it might be a grey area but I'm
okay with exceptions like this.

~~~
masklinn
> Yes it might be a grey area but I'm okay with exceptions like this.

It's not really a gray area, a number of countries either have a concept of
"caretaker leaves" or let parents use sick/parental leaves to take care of
young children (in Sweden for instance, parents can take their paid sick leave
— 364 days @80% then 550 days @75% — to care for children under 12)

------
DanBC
As others have pointed out, the money was used for relocation and support
while not working:

> _Lucas and his family have to relocate to be close to his doctors at Duke
> University for six months. His parents decided they would both quit their
> jobs to care for the boy and his baby brother. After meeting with financial
> planners, the family decided they would need to raise $50,000 to support
> themselves_

Even in the UK, with an extensive and complex set of welfare benefits, people
would not be supported fully by the state if they just left their jobs to care
for an ill child. (I have no idea what benefits would be available, the system
is pretty much incomprehensible.) So Redditors did something really good, that
have made this child's recovery a lot nicer.

But, for people who want to talk about politics: How can the US government
spend so much on healthcare and have such a lousy system?

([http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-
brutal-...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-brutal-truth-
about-americarsquos-healthcare-1772580.html))

([https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEOMqU-
wJjq...](https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEOMqU-wJjqgfQ))

------
cl8ton
This is not the time to debate the healthcare issues

This was a great story about a caring family and their son Lucas getting
treatment and the tech family helped…that’s all that matters here.

~~~
gfodor
Why is this "not the time to debate the healthcare issues?" I could see that
being a fair point if someone had died, out of respect. But in this case I
seriously do not see why it's just assumed that talking about healthcare in
the U.S. is not fair game for this thread?

~~~
mbreese
Because the story wasn't about the US health-care system.

It was about a family that decided to relocate to be closer to their son's
doctors at Duke. They also decided to stop working during their son's
treatment to better take care of him. To do this, they needed financial help
and the Reddit community stepped up to help cover the bills.

These were all tough (and valid) choices for the family, but doesn't have much
to do with the state of the US heath-care system. Their choices were all
outside the heath-care system, it was about caring for their family during a
hard time. Their son was denied treatment, in fact, insurance wasn't even
mentioned in the original story.

By starting to talk about the need for universal health care, the entire
conversation changes away from what was a simple story about the power of
social media to help people. Instead the thread devolves to a pro-universal
health-care versus libertarianism debate. Unfortunately, this is the way HN
has started running on the weekends. All we end up with are the same
arguments: libertarianism is awesome, Apple sucks, Android sucks, Google
sucks, religion sucks, HN has degraded :), etc... it is a little tiring.

So while, it may be a good time to discuss the state of heath-care in the US,
this story isn't the place. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed.

~~~
masklinn
> It was about a family that decided to relocate to be closer to their son's
> doctors at Duke.

It was not exactly a decision, leaving a 3 years old child for 6 months in a
medical environment tends to be a rather hurtful option for everybody.

> They also decided to stop working during their son's treatment to better
> take care of him.

Outside the US, there are UHC countries with (paid) caretaker leave, or
allowing parents to use (paid) sick leaves to take care of young children if
needs arises. In Sweden, they could have taken up to 364 days at 80% salary
(and a further 550 days at 75% salary). And even without that, this would
generally be protected circumstances: the employer would not be allowed to
fire the employee for taking unpaid leave to take care of his/her child, not
without taking significant (monetary) risks.

> By starting to talk about the need for universal health care, the entire
> conversation changes away from what was a simple story about the power of
> social media to help people.

I'd expect that people in here try to get to the root of the problem instead
of praising band-aids. Praising band-aids is good, but insufficient: band-aids
are a short-term solution to potentially systemic problems.

------
wx77
Some more about the story:

On Reddit blog:

[http://blog.reddit.com/2011/12/3-year-old-lucas-inspires-
red...](http://blog.reddit.com/2011/12/3-year-old-lucas-inspires-reddit.html)

And the original posting:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Assistance/comments/muvuk/everywhere...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Assistance/comments/muvuk/everywhere_hi_reddit_im_lucas_im_3_years_old_have/)

------
ricky_rozay
This reminded me of the people in egypt (i think it was, or somewhere near)
that named their baby facebook cuz he was born during the arab spring. The
reddit story is more poignant to me, maybe cuz the only other mainstream media
coverage of reddit was that whole jailbait debacle. Nice to see the site
redeem itself..maybe redditors really do get the whole karma concept after all

~~~
baby
ಠ_ಠ

