Tim Alsip was willing to
give up his freedom because he can’t pay for health care.
CREDIT:
KGW.com
Nobody sticks up a bank for
a single dollar unless he has a particularly compelling reason. Tim Alsip had
one: the only way he could afford health care was to get it in jail.
On Friday morning,
50-year-old Alsip walked into a Portland-area Bank of America and calmly handed
the teller a note: “This is a hold up. Give me a dollar.” Alsip then took his
single dollar bill and sat quietly in the lobby, waiting for police to arrive.
According to The Oregonian, he
has a history of mental illness, addiction, and dental problems that seem to
have gone untreated. Sacrificing his freedom was the price Alsip felt he had to pay to receive medical care.
Alsip is currently homeless
and has no past criminal record in the state. He was arrested without incident and charged with second-degree robbery and bail set at $250,000.
The price of health care in
the United States has been growing exponentially in the United States over the past 50 years — far faster than average wages, which have been stagnating. For a
family of four, health care is now even more expensive than food. Though Obamacare is already leading to a “remarkable slowdown”
in health care costs and will help ensure coverage for folks like Alsip that doesn’t involve going to the emergency
room or going to jail, there is still a long way to go.
Sadly, Alsip’s story is
becoming a common one in modern-day America, as poor, desperate individuals who
are unable to afford proper care commit pseudo-crimes because they feel that
prison health care is their only option. A North Carolina man in 2011, a New York man
in 2012, and an Alabama
man in2013 all committed small thefts with the sole intent of getting
arrested and hopefully being able to get well again behind bars.
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