That’s true. It must be a truly dysfunctional family situation for her not to have insurance. I know it’s hard, but it’s certainly doable. Speaking from way too much experience.
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Like you, I have compassion and wish for the best outcome here. This is a small forum, and I gather that no one has a personal connection to the case, so I felt it was ok to discuss things that I wouldn’t be discussing with Retton’s family right now.
I believe, like others have said, that the young daughters are just trying to do “something” to help the situation. Most of us have been in a similarly dire situation, and want nothing more than to help.
But if someone were so inclined to protect an inheritance through the goodwill of others, the actions taken in this situation would be identical, and it seems fair to discuss now when people are donating money rather than later.
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As an aside, there’s something bad going around. We’ve had 2 employees at work end up on ventilators with Pneumonia over the last month. One, in his early 30s and very fit, was in an induced coma for 2 weeks. The decline happened over night, and neither had been sick for more than a day or two.
Most people have no idea about a particular family members insurance status… unless you pay the bills or live under the same roof. None of the family gatherings I have attended ever included discussions of insurance… health or otherwise. Insurance coverage or lack thereof is not a reflection on a family and/or their dysfunction in my opinion.
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My family has some long term medical issues so being without health insurance is paramount to us.
I know I’ve had some discussions with others about healthcare and about lapses in coverage. I think my family is more risk adverse than other people.
I’m hoping for a full recovery for Mary Lou. I will hope that her go fund me will be explained more fully later.
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My dad always told me that no matter my financial circumstances, never go a day without health insurance, even if it’s just catastrophic. That said, I don’t know why she was without. I do not blame her children, at all, for setting up a go fund me for family and friends. My kids are the same age and online fundraising is so common for this generation, it seems like any hospitalization or sudden death comes with one. Also, even though I was in my 40’s when my very healthy vibrant mother was diagnosed with an aggressive stage 4 cancer, I always felt I needed to DO something, FIX something, make things better. I was very aware of their finances (my dad had Alzheimer’s and I became head of household across town, taking care of bills and such). I’m guessing the kids were shocked, gutted, and wanted to find a way to help, even if not needed (since 20 something’s generally didn’t know their parents whole financial picture, those discussions tend to come decades later).
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That $260,000 could help a lot of truly poor people yet …
My wife worked for a company that provided excellent health insurance and paid 90% of the cost. they had a rule that all employees had to have the insurance unless proof is provided of similar coverage. She told me about many employees, mostly young, who protested this requirement. they basically said “I’m healthy. i don’t need health insurance”. That is a common mindset.
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Yet the people donating know exactly where it’s going. 
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I know I had a really hard time finding affordable insurance for my parents. Both had health issues and had some income, but they were barely getting by and they were under the age of 65, so they couldn’t do Medicare.
They couldn’t afford the health insurance costs that were several thousand per month.
Every state is different with how they fund their costs.
I don’t know the MLR situation, but I remember having to be diligent about using every code to bill insurance companies for every piece of the bill when I worked in a hospital. Everything was billed, but some items weren’t accepted by Medicare/Blue cross, etc., so I had to tell the billing department to find sort of ancillary insurance (or find a code to fit my services) to cover other costs that couldn’t be billed to the “stationary” insurance.
Now, a lot of things, I believe are covered and are streamlined but I still think it’s expensive.
I feel for the family if they thought that MLR wouldn’t be able to cover the costs and they probably didn’t really know how expensive a stay in a hospital rises in cost.
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I was thinking $300k isn’t nearly enough for her bill of 2-3 weeks.
When my daughter was in the NICU, there was a daily fee for her level of coverage (it changed as she got better) and then procedures were billed separately. If she received treatment at Children’s Hosp. every single thing was billed separately, plus the daily room charge. They’d hang a piece of paper on the wall and everything they opened, from a medication to a band-aid had a sticker bar code that was placed on the paper, and when it was filled it went to billing. Sometimes she’d filled up 4 pieces of paper.
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I think this is a state-by-state issue and whie I am not knowledgeable of the differences I think it might have something to do with each state agreeing to support from the Federal government that eventually the state has to take over?
In NC (several years ago) I tried to help two very low income people get “Obamacare” insurance. The monthly fees were possible but this was to purchase a high-deductible plan which they could not come close to affording. It is easier for them to go to the ER and not pay the bill.
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Yes, for the very low-income it depends on whether or not your state chose to expand Medicaid. The Federal government has subsidized that, but it’s not guaranteed that they will forever. So in some states there are folks who actually are not eligible for the ACA marketplace subsidies but who also do not qualify for that state’s Medicaid. It’s a painful loophole.
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I do think that it’s foolish to not have health insurance. That said, I do know that in many cases insurance can be too expensive for some people but they make too much for medicaid. It’s really too bad, that we can’t make healthcare affordable for everyone. But that’s a topic for another time.
It’s too bad that Mary Lou has pneumonia. It must be a bad strain, because it’s not like she is super old and unhealthy. But who knows! I hope she recovers and is able to get healthy soon!
Looks like she is making progress towards getting better.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/15/sport/mary-lou-retton-progress-spt-intl/index.html
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She is now home from the hospital and in “recovery mode”.
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Update: Mary Lou Retton received $459,324 in donations. She and her family won't say how it's being spent.
Actually, the family clearly states that medical bills will be paid and the remaining funds will be donated to a charity picked by Mary Lou.
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People give money through go fund me accounts and then make demands to know how every cent is spent. If you don’t want to give money, don’t give it. When you give money to the United way or the Red Cross, you don’t get to control the way it is spent.
I’m not sure how much will be left. She spent a long time in ICU. 28 years ago, my daughter was in the NICU for 89 days and the non-insurance adjust bill was over $300k. It wouldn’t surprise me if Retton’s bill was over a million.
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From the article I read, the family says the medical bills will be paid but do not say if all remaining funds will be donated to charity, nor do they say precisely how the funds have been spent so far. I do not think they should have to as folks gave the money with no strings attached but it does seem like they never really thought they would get so much. They try to say she could not get insurance but the article made it pretty clear that she could have…she made a bad decision and was lucky that she was bailed out.
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I wonder if she has insurance now?!
Hopefully she will be well enough to continue doing speaking engagements soon.
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