Missing from the story: Virginia was one of the "red" states that didn't expand Medicaid to the lower to middle class. This has two follow-on effects: a bunch of people didn't have insurance, and the federal government stopped shoveling cash to hospitals that provided treatment to people without insurance.
Is there any reason not to expand medicaid? I mean there's some bizarre claim that you have more freedom somehow if you don't have to have health insurance, but that's just idiocy. Everyone on each will die, and almost everyone will have a sickness or injury in their life.
The federal government only subsidizes the expansion for so many years, although in all states where it wasn't expanded, it appears to be based on non-economic reasons. Expanding Medicaid in all 50 states would've avoided an estimated 15k deaths [1]. It would've also drastically improved health outcomes [2].
Apparently wage garnishment is allowed under Virginia law, as it is a "state institution" (the hospital system). That is what makes this story in particular unique. I anticipate something like this happening (or worse) in my state.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.8 ms ] thread[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/23/20703776/m...
[2] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/24/17779338/v...