Luis Lang, a 49-year old handyman from Fort Mill, South Carolina, is a self-reliant Republican who never obtained health insurance because he “prided himself on paying his own medical bills.”
Then the headaches started.
After 10 days of unceasing pain, Lang consulted a doctor. He learned that he had suffered a series of ministrokes, exacerbated by poorly treated diabetes and a tobacco addiction. Now the blood vessels in his eyes are bleeding and he suffers from a partially detached retina, according to the
Charlotte Observer.
His doctor, presently treating him for free, told the newspaper that he will go blind if he doesn’t receive specialized surgery.
While the operation is widely available, Lang has exhausted his savings and can no longer work due to his impaired vision. The self-employed repairman who owns a suburban home valued over $300,000 always figured “help would be available in an emergency.”
He did try to obtain Affordable Care Act coverage, but by the time he applied, he missed the 2015 enrollment deadline. He does not earn enough income to qualify for a private coverage subsidy and says he’s “either too young or too old” to be eligible for charities helping with blindness and diabetes.
Although Medicaid is typically available for low-income Americans, the right-wing state of South Carolina refused to participate in the program’s expansion, even though it would have been fully funded by the federal government.
Lang’s wife blames President Obama’s labyrinthine health policies for her husband’s current predicament.
“(My husband) should be at the front of the line, because he doesn’t work and because he has medical issues,” Mary Lang told the
Charlotte Observer. “We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act.”
But as the
Charlotte Observer’s health care reporter points out, “Anyone who’s remotely familiar with insurance knows there’s no system that lets people skip payments while they’re healthy and cash in when they get sick.”
Since the original news story was posted, Lang’s
GoFundMe page has raised more than half of the $30,000 that he believe he will need for surgery and medical bills. Almost all of the fundraisers are Obamacare supporters who hope that this experience forces Lang to reconsider his stance on the legislation.
