In his touching memorial of Vic Chesnutt, Mark Huddle points out that, before his death, Chesnutt was in medical debt of up to $70,000.  Debt collectors had threatened to take his house, and as Chesnutt himself said, “I could die only because I cannot afford to go in there again. I don’t want to die…just because I don’t have enough money to go in the hospital. But that’s the reality of it. You know, I have a preexisting condition, my quadriplegia, and I can’t get [decent] health insurance.”

Chesnutt was not alone. Alex Chilton, who died last month of a heart attack at age 59, owned no insurance. According to a New Orleans Times-Picayune feature, “At least twice in the week before his fatal heart attack, Chilton experienced shortness of breath and chills while cutting grass. But he did not seek medical attention, [wife Laura] Kersting said, in part because he had no health insurance.”