
Health system sues thousands of patients, seizing paychecks, taking home liens - ductionist
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/uva-has-ruined-us-health-system-sues-thousands-of-patients-seizing-paychecks-and-putting-liens-on-homes/2019/09/09/5eb23306-c807-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html
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pedasmith
Missing from the story: Virginia was one of the "red" states that didn't
expand Medicaid to the lower to middle class. This has two follow-on effects:
a bunch of people didn't have insurance, and the federal government stopped
shoveling cash to hospitals that provided treatment to people without
insurance.

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sjg007
Maybe these people should file a class action lawsuit against the state for
not accepting the medicaid expansion.

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NotSammyHagar
Is there any reason not to expand medicaid? I mean there's some bizarre claim
that you have more freedom somehow if you don't have to have health insurance,
but that's just idiocy. Everyone on each will die, and almost everyone will
have a sickness or injury in their life.

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toomuchtodo
The federal government only subsidizes the expansion for so many years,
although in all states where it wasn't expanded, it appears to be based on
non-economic reasons. Expanding Medicaid in all 50 states would've avoided an
estimated 15k deaths [1]. It would've also drastically improved health
outcomes [2].

[1] [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2019/7/23/20703776/m...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2019/7/23/20703776/medicaid-expansion-obamacare-health-care-2020)

[2] [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2018/8/24/17779338/v...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2018/8/24/17779338/voxcare-medicaid-expansion-success-charts)

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disabled
Apparently wage garnishment is allowed under Virginia law, as it is a "state
institution" (the hospital system). That is what makes this story in
particular unique. I anticipate something like this happening (or worse) in my
state.

