… with $450,000 Go Fund Me windfall. This is better than “free Obamacare”.
intercst
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Heck, this goes all the way to the “scam” end of the scale unless she or her family donates the excess to poor sick people. But then on the other hand the scamming by the health"care" industry is so huge it may eat up every last penny…
david fb
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I was thinking similarly - scam, at first, but then wondering what her bills are for the past several weeks. A hospital stay of that duration with all of the various testing could likely eat up a large chunk of the winnings.
Pete
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It’s not like she wasn’t rich (or at least better off than the vast majority) or didn’t have access to insurance. She willfully chose not to have it.
She had many endorsements throughout her life and was married (until 2018) to a real estate developer turned university athletic director.
It is believed that although she did well for herself through various endorsement deals, Mary Lou Retton 's current net worth is just 2m dollars.
Hawkwin
Who has a visceral reaction to the idea of giving money to such an individual when other much more needy people are completely ignored.
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That seems unlikely. She lives in a 9,000 sq ft 6 bedroom house with manicured grounds, pool, etc.
The house alone is probably worth that.
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But how much is the mortgage? There’s a big difference between gross assets and net worth.
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My thought exactly. Anyone can drive a really flashy car, thanks to 84 month financing, at least until the repo man shows up.
Steve
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Anything is possible, I’ll grant, but she’s lived there since at least 2009, maybe before. It’s also the address for her “company”, MLR Enterprises (she does endorsements, speeches, etc.) so there’s a tax write off in addition to (likely) real income. Not to mention how much she saves on insurance premiums 
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Unknowns abound, like how much equity she has in it. Has she remortgaged it every time the market value went up, to suck the equity out of it?
Steve
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The gobsmackingness is not increased or decreased by MLR health or wealth, as the gobsmack is how Social Media power based on fame allows easy harvesting from hapless bloobies*** . What will become of our descendants as this strengthens, or will our culture evolve antibodies, and if so, what and how and when?
d fb
***(censor evading spelling, goodness but our nanny surpasses any Victorian floopsie with too tight girdle i can imagine)
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If she was uninsured then she’s paying list price for that healthcare. Which is insane.
What doesn’t add up for me is, how someone of her financial means would be out there exposed without health insurance. To protect yourself you have to have it. If nothing else, the negotiated rates your plan gets will provide a lot of savings vs. what they charge the uninsured. No excuse.
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I remember back 50 years ago, when the bulk of the fawning over “celebs” was limited to Rhona Barrett’s 3 minute piece on the late news. Now, much of the “news” each day is a combination of fawning over “celebs”, and advertising dressed up as news (see the latest blather about Apple TV) One local Detroit station has a two hour block of 4 celeb fawning programs, back to back, at midnight, then another two hour block of the same programs at 2pm, then another one hour block of two of the same programs at 7pm.
…must keep the Proles diverted.
Steve
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Pure speculation but you don’t have to think too hard or long as to why someone might intentionally avoid signing up for ACA.
Won’t surprise me if she turns out to be anti-vax too.
For some unknown reason, she was visibly against the Safe Sport Act that required the governing bodies of USA Gymnastics to report sexual assault to the police.
The biggest donor to her Go Fundme campaign is/was reportedly Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale - a big Dear Leader and Tea Party supporter.
Stands to reason he would not do that unless he felt she was like-minded.
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Eww.
I think you’ve nailed it. I’m not sure she’s specifically One of the Loyal but she’s been solidly Republican establishment since the days of Reagan, among other things.
On a side note about the Safe Sport Act, this is a good read
Kinda sounds like she’s a monster inside-- just wants abuse scandals to fade away and let USA Gymnastics get back to the status quo. Claims a “reputable gym” is the best defense against abuse, even though her own coach from 1984 was banned for life for sexual improprieties with athletes, and the entire 2012 Olympic team and 27 out of 31 (which is almost 90%) members of world championship and olympic teams in 2011-2016 were abuse victims.
That said, Obamacare/ACA isn’t the only way to buy your own insurance. If as I’ve read she was worth millions she could buy private coverage other ways.
I’d love to know if she had one of those Christian medical expense sharing plans – the ones that basically promise “best effort but no promises” on health expenses, and have to overtly declare “THIS IS NOT INSURANCE.” They take your (usually lower) premium-like payment but have total discretion about whether to pay or to just declare “…sorry” – sometimes because you were not “living a clean life” i.e. sex outside marriage, drinking, smoking, etc. but sometimes because, well, it’s money.
It’s basically a scam at root, even if some are well-intentioned – if you have a normal bad bout of shingles or break a wrist you may be looked after, but if you get one of those illnesses that goes from zero to 200K in 9.3 seconds, you really can’t count on them. I call it a scam because chances are people who buy it usually are allowed to believe it’s “just as good as insurance.” But it appeals to people who think “clean living,” whatever that is, will insulate you from the harms that happen to “other people.”
If she was in fact relying on such support I would love to see the organization behind the plan named and shamed. Maybe it would wake some people up about where their money is going.
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