Republican Who Fought ACA Wants YOU To Pay After His Polo Accident
Former NY Rep. Michael Grimm is paralyzed after having been thrown from a horse in September.
Felon and former New York Representative Michael Grimm is paralyzed after having suffered the most Republican of all possible accidents this past September — being thrown from a horse during a polo match.
As a result of this accident, he was paralyzed from the chest down, which is a horrific thing we truly would not wish on anyone, even a tax-evading felon who once threatened to throw a reporter off of a balcony — which would have likely caused a similar injury. He hopes to learn to walk again, but that kind of thing costs a whole lot of money. So, like many Americans, he has turned to GoFundMe as a way to afford treatment.
Via GoFundMe:
Our friend, former Marine, FBI Agent, and US Congressman Michael Grimm was paralyzed following a devastating accident when thrown from a horse in September 2024. He has been in the most devastating of situations and through the grace of God and the amazing medical teams who have helped him, Mr. Grimm has miraculously thread the needle to survive. Yet, his ongoing care and the treatment to walk again will cost millions of dollars.
For a man who has dedicated his life to helping others, we now humbly ask that you give generously to help him.
It remains unclear who it is, exactly, that Michael Grimm helped. Maybe that lady he was rumored to have shtupped in a New York wine bar, but who can say for sure? I wouldn’t bet on it! But apparently enough people are willing to go along with that premise to raise $240,899 for his care as of this writing.
Now, because we live in a country that does not and will probably never have socialized medicine — because of people like Michael Grimm — there are a ton of people raising money for their exorbitant healthcare costs on sites like GoFundMe. They account for about 250,000 fundraisers a year and one-third of all donations through the site.
Alas, very few of those people dedicated a significant portion of their life to trying to take healthcare away from other people the way that Michael Grimm did. During his time in Congress, one of Grimm’s main priorities was to get rid of the ACA — as he had promised during his campaign. He did, in fact, vote to defund and delay the start of the ACA in 2013, a move which you may recall led to the entire government shutting down. Good times!
Six percent of Americans have medical debt over $1000. Practically any American outside of the top three percent of earners could easily find themselves with insurmountable medical debt, should they or a member of their family get thrown off of a horse during a polo match or otherwise suffer some unexpected illness or injury that their private health insurance company won’t cover or will only cover partially.
Things have to be this way because people just don’t want to pay for other people’s healthcare — or, more specifically, want to be able to choose whose healthcare they pay for and whose they don’t.
Because the truly dystopian/Black Mirror-y part of this is that we can go and look and see all of the other paralyzed or similarly injured people on that site also hoping to walk again — who, again, have never fought to take anyone else’s healthcare away — who have maybe raised a tenth of what Michael Grimm has raised.
Why? Because he is a well-known person and they are not. This is how we do healthcare in this country — through a popularity contest. Those who win don’t get saddled with punishing medical debt for the rest of their lives. Those who lose? Well, they just lose, don’t they?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
And when he threatened that reporter, he said, "I will break you like a boy." Whatever that meant. No further comment.
I'm sadly reminded of my Governor Abbott, who is in a wheelchair now because a tree limb fell on him while out for a run. He sued and won millions, got elected to the Texas House, then introduced a bill limiting damages to $250,000. And Texans continue to vote for these hypocritical fucks.