Silly question: why didn't he go on the health care exchange and buy insurance, since he couldn't be turned down because of preexisting conditions?
He was already on MEDICARE for MANY YEARS. He was eighty-one or eighty-two when he died the other day.
By the way, when I say I "knew" him, I did not mean that we ate dinner at each other's houses or anything.
I meant that I worked for one of his good friends and I saw quite a bit of him, he knew my name and knew I was Hal's video guy, that sort of thing.
Anytime Dick was in town, Hal and I more often than not would meet him at the Reel Inn or some other Malibu eatery and grab a bite. Dick would rag on Hal about Hal's drinking, Hal would ignore it and make Dick laugh. Dick always talked about someday enlisting Hal to film a big budget MTV video but it always boiled down to Dick's health putting the kibosh on the money for the project.
But Dick was a huge fan of Hal's surf films and Hal used a little bit of Dick's music on some of his projects, no complaints from Dick.
Dick was sick for MANY MANY years, even in his youth, and as the insurance game changed, so did his luck WITH the insurance companies.
Dick Dale was pronounced virtually "uninsurable" for all practical purposes as far back as the late 1980's and could only get coverage for the basics, and even when he won a couple of battles, the result was the insurance companies grudgingly allowed him to pay through the nose for hospital coverage, but even that came with all the baggage that pre-ACA health insurance was known for, treatment caps, spending caps, you name it.
By the time the ACA passed, Dick had already been shunted to Medicare many years ago, and his policy was crap when he first got it and it remained crap due to his health issues. He had to purchase expensive "gap coverage" and pay out of pocket for about 45% of what he needed.
Anybody who is or who has a loved one who has been sick most of their life starting in the 1970's is already very familiar with what I am describing. Catastrophically ill and disabled people have it ridiculously hard in this country. They are the most vulnerable.
The stresses that Dick's illness carried cost him several valuable pieces of real estate, and ultimately, a marriage, although his first wife was not exactly a perfect little angel...but no way was she built to deal with what he was going through.
Dick's first wife reminds me of MY wife's first husband, who was around for all the sparkle and honeymoons but the moment she got gravely ill and delivered a disabled son, out the door he went.
