My brother in law fell off his roof and broke both wrists once. He said there's nothing more humbling then to ask your wife to wipe your ass after a deuce.

Who cares what the values of the posters collections are? That has no relevance.

Worst advice ever. Stick to what you are doing. God will make it all work out.

Would of been nice if he had not broke his wrists in the first place...... If you believe in all that....

You have to see that you are broken before you can be fixed and I am not necessarily taking about this gentleman. Many people here are witnessing faith in this man and also the lack of faith in others and maybe in themselves.

It would be nice if we all did not screw each other by always working 100% at work, never lying, always helping, etc, but we don't. God is not responsible for our injuries or death. We are due to our repeated disrespect of Him.

I've only met Jonathan once or twice, but I am aware of what he has done for others, and from what I've seen, I can tell you he is genuinely one of the most generous and talented you will ever come across. I wanted to quote this post again, because I was also going to post the thread about the Bucky O'Hare restoration he did for a local community member that was down on his luck. Seriously the coolest things I've ever seen one person do for another in this hobby.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=392576&page=10

So sorry to hear about the accident, I'm hoping the best for you and your family!

This guy just trashed me and my husband who has a disease and unfortunately my husband has fell ill while we were going to try to sell our pinball machine. Called us frauds low life’s and made actuations that we were lying....for what we have nothing to gain .

I’m so sorry someone posted here was the person we are talking about ...Jake35.Also I’m sorry I know what it’s like to be on a tough spot and I pray you and your family get through everything ok

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As a small business owner, who pays 100% of healthcare for employees, I'd like to chime in.

First, between Social Security & Medicare (where I'm taxed twice), Federal income tax, state income tax, plus all the business taxes I'm hit with...every year, I pay the government more than I pay myself. My personal property tax isn't included in that number.

Second, Obamacare has been a disaster and that's why the OP is in the situation he is in. Last year before Obamacare, one of my employees, family of 4. $1,000 deductible, $40 copays...$12,000 for the year. First year under Obamacare, $5,000 deductible, $75 copays...$28,000 for the year. Currently, it's at $7,500 deductible, $75 copay...$38,000 for the year. Note: Those are in-network deductibles. Who are the people who wrote the bill? Most of them were people who never held a real job a day in their life. Never ran a business. Never had to meet payroll. Never had to budget. Never had to produce anything. Yet, they have the audacity to tell us how to live our lives. Remember the line "if you like you insurance, you can keep it?" I liked my old insurance and it was immediately deemed illegal by the government.

I know, I know, the argument is pre-existing conditions. In NJ (I don't want to speak for other states), if you got your insurance through your employer, pre-existing conditions were covered immediately. If you got insurance on your own, Blue Cross Blue Shield, being a non-profit, was not allowed to turn anyone away with pre-existing conditions. If you had a pre-existing condition, they would cover it after you were on their plan for 1 year.

For myself, I've had shoulder operations in 2002, 2006, 2015, and an elbow operation in 2019 (shoulders were right side, elbow was left side...I guess the left side was getting jealous and wanted in on the action). My first 2 operations were 100% covered by insurance. My last 2, due to Obamacare, I had to bring a check of about $3,000 each time with me for the operations. Before Obamacare, my policy was around $3,500 for the year. Now I'm around $12,000.

Anyone from NJ old enough to remember all the political ads about car insurance? The state had such a strong hold over it, that the rates were excessive. Once the state opened it up to competition, the rates went down. I can't remember the last time a politician in this state has even uttered the phrase "car insurance".

Before anyone starts accusing me of being right wing and stuff...if you ask me, our federal government is around $22 trillion in debt, with no end in sight...Both parties suck. This all lays at the feet of FDR with his court packing scheme. When Social Security went before the supreme court, it got passed through because the court actually wrote that the country should no longer look at the Constitution with the Madison viewpoint, but rather look at it with the Hamilton viewpoint.

Hamilton wanted a government that could pretty much do anything. Madison wanted a limited government that was severely restricted in what it can do. Madison is known as the father of the constitution, yet, due to FDR, Hamilton finally got his way and everyone now thinks the government is endless with its power.

Me personally, I'm sick and tired of people considering FDR to be a great president. He was a great war president, otherwise, he was a thug who went after private citizens for being self sufficient. Grow your own food? Nope, not allowed to. You must buy from a farmer. People are starving...so let's destroy grains and meat to artificially keep the price up. Have your own gold? Sorry, government is taking it.

My intermediate macroeconomics class in college, the first day, the professor asks us who here thinks FDR was one of the greatest presidents. We all raise our hands. His response was, to give him a few months, and we will learn a lot of things that our high schools refuse to teach us. WOW is all I have to say.

Here's a simple question: How many politicians would you trust with your checkbook?

You realize it’s been gutted for the past 3 years which is why it’s getting worse not better. The gov’t is in court right now fighting to destroy its own policy...instead of making it better.

I think the Russians have hacked your thread, Jonathan. Ignore.

It can't be made better, you can't polish a turd as a wise man once said.

The current alternative is no plan. At all. Dump everyone off with no backup and back to pre-existing conditions exclusions etc.

Church fundraising is great but unexpected things happen and no one is at “fault”. Good luck raising 80k for a surgery or whatever.

Actually...

The numbers I gave you were before Trump. How do you blame Trump for what Obama did?

The law sucks...it needs to be scrapped...end of story.

I forgot the other lie...”average family plan will go down $2,500.”

I forgot to mention, in order to pay for the expensive Obamacare law, I charge my customers more. Where exactly was this law suppose to save people money?

Who says? Buy healthcare.

I'll point out one bullet point of Obamacare was it would cover uncovered Americans.

Just as many have no coverage now that had no coverage then. That number has not significantly changed.

If you like your doctor you can keep him.

Mine said "fu&k it, I'm out of here" and retired.

Now you get some idiot who is more interested in building a "facebook profile" on his laptop for you instead of addressing your concerns when you come for a visit. I fired my last one for such behavior after I spent an hour typing up a very detailed list of medical issues and he spent a hot 15 seconds looking at it.

That is inaccurate.

The Census found that 8.5% of the U.S. population went without medical insurance for all of 2018, up from 7.9% in 2017. By contrast, in 2013, before the Affordable Care Act took full effect, 13.3% were uninsured. It was the first year-to-year increase since 2008-09, Census officials said.

Beginning of story if there’s no plan. Shortsighted.

Are you accounting for changes in population? I said number not percentages.

Mine did too, but not because of National Healthcare. She was tired of being told by the insurance companies what she could order for tests and what she couldn't. She just straight-up retired and moved to Arizona. She was the best doctor I had ever had. She fought for her patients against insurance companies "wishes", and it got to a point where she was basically handcuffed.

Is National Healthcare the answer? Is Private Healthcare the answer? I dunno, but it seems like neither of them are seeing much success.

Before the ACA, I know several people that were unable to buy health insurance because no health insurance would sell to them for their pre-existing conditions. The ones that would sell to them quoted rates so high, it wasn't do-able for anyone. I really don't think that is really a functional solution.

Bump for the OP. You seem like an incredible man. I am truly sorry to hear about your misfortune. Keep your head up, things will turn around for you. Good people deserve good things.

Reform is needed, but nationalizing healthcare is not the answer. That just makes it worse.

Death panels for one example, long waiting times for another.

Britain:

"British Medical Journal released a damning report that all NHS hospitals had implemented "a palliative care protocol" known as Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). The protocol is used on many sick babies and the elderly when the NHS deems them unsavable, even in cases like Alfie where alternative treatment was available."

"There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP."

Canada:

Waiting for treatment has become a defining characteristic of Canadian health care. In order to document the lengthy queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures in the country, the Fraser Institute has—for over two decades—surveyed specialist physicians across 12 specialties and 10 provinces.

This edition of Waiting Your Turn indicates that, overall, waiting times for medically necessary treatment have in-creased since last year. Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 21.2 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment—longer than the wait of 20.0 weeks reported in 2016. This year’s wait time—the longest ever recorded in this survey’s history—is 128% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

Patients also experience significant waiting times for various diagnostic technologies across the provinces. This year, Canadians could expect to wait 4.1 weeks for a computed tomography (CT) scan, 10.8 weeks for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and 3.9 weeks for an ultrasound.

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I have zero use or interest in "free healthcare" having worked in the US system for over a decade the problems will just get worse as they did when the government put Obamacare in place.

Stop the goverment micro-managment, institute tort reform and rein in the lawyers and you will see the costs go down.

Having a look at the pharmaceutical companies would be of great benefit too. Lot of money thrown around by them so they are NOT looked at, one has to wonder why.

My thoughts exactly. The church needs to file a claim.

I'm a sympathetic individual for the most part but when your idea of "fixing the healthcare system" is to destroy it so you can have coverage at significant cost to your fellow taxpayer my sympathy level zeros out.

And make no bones about it that is what you are asking for, "charity" at the point of a gun wielded by the US Government. No thanks.

We did happen to switch over to my wife's coverage this year and no I don't get any extra money in my check because of it. You just "lose out" on that money.

Umm...y.e.s.

Carry on with your tirade.

I lost mine too...

Nothing will change as long as our health care is a "for profit" industry. There are literally trillions of dollars up for grabs. Big Pharma spends millions on lobbyists and campaign contributions (because, you know, corporations are people now too!). Our politicians are all paid for. Americans spent $535 BILLION on prescription drugs last year, an increase of 50% since 2010. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-prices-oxycontin-predaxa-purdue-pharmaceuticals-boehringer-ingelheim/
Remember Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family? Built an empire of billions on Oxy, knowing how addictive it was, and THEN cornered the market on the drug treatment to get you OFF it.
How many drug commercials will you see on TV today? Drug salesmen used to visit doctors and give them samples to pass on to patients - now they market them directly to you and your children because maybe they can convince you that yes, you DO have Restless Leg Syndrome and you better ask your doctor about Medication X!

It's not in the health care industrys best interest for you to be well - they don't make money if nobody is sick.

Don't have insurance? That sucks, because that overnight hospital stay will run you about 6 grand.

Pre-existing conditions? Yeah, I'm in my 50s, this shit didn't happen yesterday, what do you mean I can't get insured??

My wife was diagnosed with MS 10 years ago. When she lost her job as her health spiraled, she lost her health care and had to pay for it herself - she ended up losing her house, emptied her 401k, she lost everything. She couldnt collect unemployment because "you're not able to work". Until you see something like this happen first hand, it's easy to sit here and say "health care isnt a right", or "i don't want the govt in my health care". We live in the richest nation on the planet, and are one of the only developed countries in the world that won't take care of our sick.

I don't have all the answers. But when the care you get, or DON'T get, depends on what you can afford, it's wrong. We can do better.

Where we work, if you dont opt in for the health insurance, you dont get extra pay for it..

Maybe the church can give you a job in the maintenence deptartment.

Newsflash for you- Healthcare has *always* been a for profit industry.

You are paying for someone else services no different than paying a painter to paint your house or mechanic to fix your car.

Should the government take over house painting and garages too?

I work in the industry, it is distorted by the government. More government isn't going to fix it.

Get wel soon!

Sympathetic as long as it doesn't affect YOU at all, right?

Your taxes pay for parks you'll probably never visit, sidewalks you'll never use, firemen and police you'll (hopefully) never need. What's your sympathy level for all of those? How about the armed forces that protect us, are those "charity" too?

You make it sound like you think everyone is gonna run out and quit their jobs to sit around and bask in the free health care you're buying for them.

It's called living in a society, and taking care of each other. Your mind won't change until it happens to you.

I don't need to get my house painted or my car fixed in order to stay alive -

When some drug company decides to double the cost of the medicine my wife needs to be able to walk, YES - I want my government to stand up for me, because I can't fight a billion dollar corporation.

They wont either. The government only wants a piece of the pie as well. Dont be fooled.. Everything the government does is about money... Everything.

Can we maybe make a separate thread for the socialism vs libertarianism discussion and keep this one more about the help and recovery of this particular pinsider?

It is a valid and long running debate...but maybe just not right here.

I hope this all works out for the OP, and that he is on the road to a full recovery.

I must say that reading this thread reminded me not to take our health care system for granted here in Canada. I wouldn’t trade it for any other North American option, despite all the flaws pointed out here (real and imagined). If I fell off a ladder I wouldn’t need to sell off pins or a go fund me just to get basic treatment and that’s kinda a big plus for me. But what do I know? I actually don’t mind how much I am currently being taxed (I know, there’s one born ever minute...). There’s enough left over for me to be able to afford this hobby so I’m not complaining

Moderator's comment:

Folks, please try to refrain from jumping into the debate about healthcare.

If you have anything that you think might actually help hailrazer with his situation, by all means, feel free to suggest it. However, debates on this national issue aren't going to solve anything in here today.

And how do you know it doesn't? You know nothing about me or my families needs.

My daughter needed a tumor the size of a lemon removed from her nasal cavity 5 years ago, it was my responsibility to pay for it not fellow taxpayers.

ding-ding-ding. winner!

You get it.

Edit; I'm out, thank you for the notice Forceflow.

That's fine - they're already getting a piece, they'll just get a bigger one. At least everyone would have access to the pie - that's the point.

You have access to it now. You just have to pay for it like everyone else.

Ok Moderator rules followed now. Good chatting with everyone...

I know that you had the resources to get a lemon sized tumor removed from your daughters nasal cavity 5 years ago.

What if you hadn't? What if it had cost $100,000? What if it was only treatable by a $10k a month treatment? What if you had to sell everything you owned to save/help her? It HAPPENS - people have had retirement savings wiped out by medical bills, houses lost. That's what the whole argument is about. Everyone deserves to be healthy, especially in America. Regardless of your bank account.

Ok, moderator rules being observed now. OP, good luck to you.

And just what does that drug company owe you? Are you entitled to what they invented?

Federal government now pays for police, firemen, sidewalks...where exactly in the constitution is that found?

Armed forces...in the constitution.

I think people forget that we are 50 different states, that form a Union for common welfare and defense. It’s all listed in the constitution. And that’s why we have a 10th amendment...to keep the government limited...not what it is today.

For instance, the federal government should have nothing to do with health insurance. We already had 50 health insurance agencies that set rules for health insurance in each state. We didn’t need a 51st one. Same thing with Department if Education...we already had 50 of them...did it need a 51st one.

Apologize for ranting...it’s so off topic.

I really hope the OP makes a full recovery. One of my clients, about 10 years ago fell off a ladder and broke both wrists...unfortunately, he did it at home. Took him a while to recover. He will never be the same, but where he recovered too, he is probably at 85%.

Edit/note: I say unfortunately at home, because he was laying in his garage for hours before he wife came home and found him.

So you're cool with companies price gouging people in life or death situations? Also, a lot of the R&D on these drugs were funded by your taxes.

The rest of the industrialized world says YES, you're entitled to it, even if you don't make $250k a year. They agree that their citizens have a RIGHT to access to doctors and the medications necessary to lead healthy, productive lives. Nobody is asking for free drugs - don't worry, they're still gonna make their billions, it just won't bankrupt the end user. I realize they're in business to make money, but they ARE making MEDICINE, right? Go build Ferraris if you just want to sell things to millionaires.

If a car falls on you while you're working on it, is it OK for me to charge you $50,000 to jack it up so it doesn't kill you?
Or do you think I should just do it because IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO?

Enough already with the "health care debate". Can we please help this guy get the funds he needs and keep this post on topic. Moderator has already asked for this and it is only fair to the OP to keep this topic on point. Everyone in the US already knows health care is a mess. We just need someone with some balls to get it fixed. But I doubt that will ever happen with the drug companies, lawyers, and big business buying the elections these days.