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County in rural Kansas is jailing people for medical debt

Digger said:
According to reality, that is a weaselly way to get around the spirit of the law and create a debtor's prison in all but name.

Which part of this are you saying is fake? Are you saying it's not happening or are you saying there's nothing wrong with it?
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Difficulty with English?

I said neither of those things.

The people jailed are asked to appear before a judge. The appearance is simply an appearance. No payments are demanded or required. By appearing, only appearing, they avoid being in contempt of court.

Jail time is for not appearing. Did your reading comprehension really hide that from you?
 
braindrain said:
Yes because liberal places like California don’t jail people for showing up to court.

Let me guess you didn’t actually read the article and just fell for the dishonest headline because it fits your partisan world view.
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I live right next to Kansass and have for many years, Kansass has it's own way of doing things and it is all directed by Republicanism.
 
code1211 said:
According to the article, the jail penalties are for contempt of court due to failure to appear before the judge, not the medical debts.

Calling it Debtor's Prison is fake news.
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Semantics prevail over justice. Welcome to the US of A.

Can we rationalize a way to flog the man so that his debt could be forgiven?
 
braindrain said:
Did he go to jail for his debt or for failing to show up in court.

People go to jail all the time for failing to show up to court for all kinds of reason.
Pretending it’s due to not paying debt is just silly.
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Showing up to court can be a major hurdle for some people, especially in rural areas where transportation is an issue. But you know, the person in this story was working two jobs to try and pay off his debt and missed a couple court dates. If missing a court date gets you strip searched and hosed down and thrown in a prison cell, we shouldn't be making people show up to court over and over and over again for debt. Because they will miss a couple court dates eventually.

Have you ever been stuck in the system?
 
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"Are you saying it's not happening or are you saying there's nothing wrong with it?"

code1211 said:
Difficulty with English?

I said neither of those things.

The people jailed are asked to appear before a judge. The appearance is simply an appearance. No payments are demanded or required. By appearing, only appearing, they avoid being in contempt of court.

Jail time is for not appearing. Did your reading comprehension really hide that from you?
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So if you're not saying that it didn't happen, and you're not saying that it's OK, that means that you agree that it did happen and that it isn't OK. Why are you calling it fake news?
 
Moonglow said:
I live right next to Kansass and have for many years, Kansass has it's own way of doing things and it is all directed by Republicanism.
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So despite the headline by the op being dishonest and factually wrong and you originally believing such nonsense after it being shown to you to be BS you are just going to stock your fingers in your ears and tell it’s not true over and over.

How unsurprising.
 
Digger said:
Showing up to court can be a major hurdle for some people, especially in rural areas where transportation is an issue. But you know, the person in this story was working two jobs to try and pay off his debt and missed a couple court dates. If missing a court date gets you strip searched and hosed down and thrown in a prison cell, we shouldn't be making people show up to court over and over and over again for debt. Because they will miss a couple court dates eventually.

Have you ever been stuck in the system?
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So you now admit that no one was put in jail for not paying debt and have now moved on to claim that it was simply to inconvenient for him to go to court so he should not be punished.

Do you have some evidence that he doesn’t own a car or could not find another way to get to court or are you simply making things up.

And if you don’t like the consequences of missing a court date then perhaps you shouldn’t miss them in the future.
 
Unemployment compensation for simply being unemployed in our at-will employment States can help with this issue as well under our form of Capitalism.
 
braindrain said:
So despite the headline by the op being dishonest and factually wrong and you originally believing such nonsense after it being shown to you to be BS you are just going to stock your fingers in your ears and tell it’s not true over and over.

How unsurprising.
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It is BS that a court of law is playing debt collector when an arbitration panel would work without the added cost.
 
Thoreau72 said:
Semantics prevail over justice. Welcome to the US of A.

Can we rationalize a way to flog the man so that his debt could be forgiven?
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This is not semantics. It's fact.

If I park illegally and my car is towed, that is a fact. Why I parked illegally is tangent, but not the cause of the towing.

I may have parked illegally because I was in a hurry as my wife was giving birth and my only thought was to get her into the delivery room.

However, my car was not towed because my wife gave birth. The tow truck driver may guess that leaving the car blocking the E-Room entrance was due to a medical condition, but he just hooked the car and towed it.

I have no idea what flogging has to do with forgiving debt unless it's a part of a contract arrangement. Are you in such an arrangement? Do you know of any such arrangements in today's world?
 
Digger said:
"Are you saying it's not happening or are you saying there's nothing wrong with it?"



So if you're not saying that it didn't happen, and you're not saying that it's OK, that means that you agree that it did happen and that it isn't OK. Why are you calling it fake news?
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I have no idea why your talking about whatever it is you're talking about.

Contempt of court is contempt of court. Whatever it is that you are asserting it might be is simply wrong.

Re-read the article for greater understanding.
 
The other side of this is how does a business operate with a 1,5 million loss in a year? Who makes up that loss?


Coffeyville Regional Medical Center is the only hospital within a 40-mile radius, and it reported $1.5 million in uncollectible patient debt in 2017. A nonprofit run in a city-owned building, the hospital accounts for the vast majority of medical debt lawsuits in the county — about 2,000 in the past five years.
 
Three nearby hospitals in this rural region have closed in the past several years, meaning ambulances make more trips. A half-hour from Coffeyville, Independence runs its ambulance service at about a $300,000 annual loss.

When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested



Even after lawsuits are filed, they try to connect eligible debtors with the Coffeyville hospital to apply for financial assistance, he said. Last year, the hospital wrote off $1.7 million in charity care, said Bell, the hospital lawyer. “That is evidence of a hospital that cares.”
 
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code1211 said:
This is not semantics. It's fact.

If I park illegally and my car is towed, that is a fact. Why I parked illegally is tangent, but not the cause of the towing.

I may have parked illegally because I was in a hurry as my wife was giving birth and my only thought was to get her into the delivery room.

However, my car was not towed because my wife gave birth. The tow truck driver may guess that leaving the car blocking the E-Room entrance was due to a medical condition, but he just hooked the car and towed it.

I have no idea what flogging has to do with forgiving debt unless it's a part of a contract arrangement. Are you in such an arrangement? Do you know of any such arrangements in today's world?
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With your parking ticket comparison, would you go to jail for your improper parking? No.

Yet individuals in that part of Kansas are apparently being imprisoned for their medical debts, or that is being imprisoned. When that happens for parking infractions we will be in the same pew, if you know what I mean. :mrgreen:
 
Persons should have recourse to equal protection of the law for unemployment compensation to pay their bills even under our form of Capitalism.

Two "wrongs don't make a right". All of those Persons would have made arrangements to pay their bills, with recourse unemployment compensation for simply being unemployed on an at-will basis in our at-will employment States.
 
braindrain said:
So you now admit that no one was put in jail for not paying debt and have now moved on to claim that it was simply to inconvenient for him to go to court so he should not be punished.

Do you have some evidence that he doesn’t own a car or could not find another way to get to court or are you simply making things up.

And if you don’t like the consequences of missing a court date then perhaps you shouldn’t miss them in the future.
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Admit it? It says so right in the article I posted. I didn't admit it. I'm the one who told you in the first place! No, I didn't break out my magnifying glass and go investigate if it's actually difficult for a man with two jobs and a sick child to make it to court four times a year to say the same thing he said the last time he was in court.

Does any of this make it OK?
 
code1211 said:
I have no idea why your talking about whatever it is you're talking about.

Contempt of court is contempt of court. Whatever it is that you are asserting it might be is simply wrong.

Re-read the article for greater understanding.
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I'm done going around this circle with you.
 
Thoreau72 said:
With your parking ticket comparison, would you go to jail for your improper parking? No.

Yet individuals in that part of Kansas are apparently being imprisoned for their medical debts, or that is being imprisoned. When that happens for parking infractions we will be in the same pew, if you know what I mean. :mrgreen:
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Those that die in custody can be propped-up in a pinewood coffin against a wall and photographed as a Trump campaign exhibit. My condolences to those not familiar with Coffeyville history.
 
Anyone actually in the insurance industry who can give us realistic expectations through increasing market participation by solving for simple poverty through unemployment compensation for simply being unemployed in our at-will employment States. Let's assume the equivalent to fourteen dollars an hour with or without a statutory fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage.

Let's further assume that anyone with an income can and should obtain some form of insurance since they have an income; and, that anyone who chooses not to would simply "be covered" at a higher rate by the public sector to cover that higher risk management cost; as that form of capital and market based metric in our economy.
 
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Thoreau72 said:
With your parking ticket comparison, would you go to jail for your improper parking? No.

Yet individuals in that part of Kansas are apparently being imprisoned for their medical debts, or that is being imprisoned. When that happens for parking infractions we will be in the same pew, if you know what I mean. :mrgreen:
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You lack of reading comprehension is crippling your ability to understand the message.

People in the story are NOT being jailed for not paying debts. They are being jailed for contempt of court.

Maybe if you open you eyes while reading you'd find better understanding. It's worth a try.
 
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