Secrets of the City

I wonder where the guy thought he was going after he was stabbed. Based on the article, it sounds like he was 6 or 7 blocks from Abbott NW when he was attacked, and if he still had his wits about him and knew where he was, that would have been the way to go. Instead he jumped on public transit. weird. I suppose he was either in a lost panic or in shock or both.

Or he may not be the innocent victim he claimed to be. Or mentally impared in some way. There is more to this story, methinks.

I read in the Strib that the police thought he was trying to get home to take care of his wounds himself.

There are a lot of people who will do anything not to have to be involved with the police. Maybe this guy was like that, and he knew he wouldn’t get his $20 back, and thought he was less hurt than he was.

Well, if I didn’t have any health insurance, I might be tempted to do the same. Ever pay a bill for an ER visit? Yikes!

That what I was thinking. What happens if you get treated in an ER and don’t have health insurance? Do they try to make you pay?

If you go to the county hospital, you can usually claim indigent status and they cover the cost for you or can get you signed up for medicaid. Also, if you’re a crime victim, some of your costs are covered by the state or the perp’s medical insurance (if they have any) or when they are required to pay restitution.

You are legally responsible for the medical bills at the ER if you don’t have insurance. They will do the best they can to help you work out a plan, but a stab wound could easily be more than $10,000.

And alie and I have completely different answers…

But yes, they would make you apply for medicaid, but if he works at all and has no kids, he wouldn’t be eligible for anything.

kc, yeah, the wounded would be technically responsible for the bill, but usually county hospitals are often bound by more rules to provide charity care, set by the AG, than other area hospitals such as Abbott.

As usual, the liberal local media doesn’t report the race of the victim.

Oh, and I’m not for certain on this about Medicaid, but I think if your medical bills (and subsequent payment arrangement) exceed your income, you can get approved for short term aid (but, again, not certain on that).

Or the race of the light rail car.

It’s pretty embarrassing that people have to pay 10K or not work and have a bunch of kids in order to not die from a stab wound in this country.

Welcome to Amerika! No healthcare for you!

There are a lot of people who will do anything not to have to be involved with the police.

[raises hand]. Well, maybe not ANYTHING, but an awful long ways out of my way.

alie-

MA would be available to him if he has children under 18 that live with him, if he is certified disabled, over 65 or under 22. Then he could have what is called a spenddown. That is where he is responsible for a portion of his medical bills, based on his income, and the State covers the rest.

GAMC would be available to him if he does not meet MA requirements (assuming his immigration status, assets, residency, and other requirements are met.) GAMC has two programs, straight GAMC, which has a gross income limit of 75% of the Federal Poverty Guideline, so about $600 a month before taxes. His bills would be completely covered with that.

GAMC also has a program called GHO or GMAC Hospital Only. If his income is up to 175% FPG he would be eligible to have the hospital stay covered, assuming he applied the dnight he entered, and no follow up visits or outpatient drugs.

Sorry to get so technical. The point is he probably would have ended up paying a lot and/or going through a lot of hoops to get it covered.

Oh, but if he is an immigrant, even a legal one, there is a good chance nothing would be covered unless he is an asylee/refugee or has been here for more than 12 years or so.

More a story about Jan Jerde and her daughter than a man who was probably stabbed in a botched drug deal…. Left out of WCCO’s story:
Two train cars on a Minneapolis light-rail line were evacuated after a stabbing victim got onto the train

@Adam – overreacting much? It’s not like he went to an emergency room, got turned away for not having insurance and died out on the sidewalk. As kc! and alie outlined, there are various things that can happen if an uninsured person needs emergency medical care. At worst he would end up owing a lot of money, which is different than dying.

I think this thread could have ended with bob’s : “There is more to this story, methinks.” and have been just as informative.

MA would be available to him if…

Oh man, did I wander into a conference room?

I think this thread could have ended with bob’s : “There is more to this story, methinks.” and have been just as informative.

You mean you don’t feel informed (and kinda turned on) by the detailed rundown of state-sponsored health care options? Maybe YOU need to seek medical attention.

I’ve been known to get turned on my technical manuals for household electronics, but state-sponsored healthcare doesn’t really turn my crank.

You must be dead on the inside.

@miller – I don’t think you understood my comment.

@ang…duh.

Yeah, and why didn’t he alert the bus driver that he was hurt?

Regardless, if this was an innocent guy that was stabbed for 20 bucks, that is lame. I think we should hire some carry-concealers to walk around south minneapolis vigilante-style and clean up the streets.

Re the Abbott ER–it would have been an expensive visit, esp. for the uninsured. My uninsured bro punctured his hand w/a tire iron while fixing a flat, went to Abbott and waited 3 hours in the ER, ended up spending 20 minutes with professionals getting a washed wound, band-aid and tetanus shot, and 4 weeks later got the bill for $900.

Home care for a wound you can’t yet feel anyway could still be cheaper.

Lesson: Tires Plus could have done the same work in 1/4 the time at 1/4 the price, injury free.

The uninsured should ALWAYS go to county, it’s just cheaper (relatively, anyway).

The county has different price structures for different people. When they print bills for State Medicaid reimbursement they are much higher than if the bill is for an uninsured person and lower if the bill is for private insurance.

But yes, always go to HCMC if you have an emergency. But please do not go if you have a sore throat.

Pfft. I saw a doc for a cut on my finger that wouldn’t heal fully, and the skin began to lightly peel, and the bill was $145 for about 5 minutes of face-time. She then proceeded to write me prescriptions for some steriod-based lotion (which I researched and found either she was being spiffed, and/or I was going to be Guinea-pigged with an quasi-experimental Canadian medication) & “a heavy duty” lotion; either for different applications. It turned out to be an extremely mild case of eczema, i.e. dehydration. I never redeemed the prescriptions because a few applications of Neutrogena, it disappeared. What a racket.

But yes, always go to HCMC if you have an emergency. But please do not go if you have a sore throat.

Does Fairview Riverside still have that free clinic?

sort of. It is a sliding fee clinic, so it is free if you have no income. And it is run by The Center for Victims of Torture, not Fairview.

NorthPoint is also a sliding scale clinic in North Mpls, IIRC.

Nick Punto ought to go to a sliding fee clinic. Then he’d see the real cost of diving into first base.

Yep, I knew the whole sliding fee thing, but that explains why I couldn’t find contact information for it for a friend who had a gap in coverage.

“”As soon as they arrived, they asked the people to move off the train so they could get to this man and help him,” “

So this one selfish bleediing man ruined transportation for the entire train? He’s lucky a mass transit patriot didn’t shoot him down.

They have to get passangers off due to the bodily fluid stuff. I assume they were not allowed back on the car he was in until the hazard waste people cleaned it up.

I was on a bus where a dude vomited all over it. The man was clearly sick and I felt bad, but we all had to get off and wait for a new bus to show up and replace the vomit filled one, which took half an hour. Then the vomiting dude got on the new one. I was so sure he was going to puke on that one too, but he didn’t.

Bleah, I have a higher tolerance for seeing someone bleed than for puking…ish.

trains + bodily fluid = visions of Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay

I was on the subway in NYC once when a dude was stabbed. It apparently wasn’t a life-threatening wound, so the cops marched him up and down the train trying to get him to ID a suspect. They wouldn’t let any of us off the train until the cops were convinced the attacker had escaped. They also didn’t seem concerned about the dude’s blood — or the fact that I’d just left a bar and had to pee like a racehorse.