interesting follow-up

remember yesterday, when i showed you that clip of tea party jerks wooting the idea of letting uninsured sick people die? here's a real-life scenario of that happening.

As it turns out, Paul was not speaking purely in hypotheticals. Back in 2008, Kent Snyder — Paul's former campaign chairman — died of complications from pneumonia. Like the man in Blitzer's example, the 49-year-old Snyder (pictured) was relatively young and seemingly healthy* when the illness struck. He was also uninsured. When he died on June 26, 2008, two weeks after Paul withdrew his first bid for the presidency, his hospital costs amounted to $400,000. The bill was handed to Snyder's surviving mother (pictured, left), who was incapable of paying. Friends launched a website to solicit donations. (via) 

and it seems he wasn't uninsured in some great show of individual liberty, but that a pre-existing condition caused his premiums to be out of financial reach.