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Not Every Health Condition Is Insurable

With all the discussion over the need for healthcare in the U.S., one question is never asked: is a person’s health insurable?

The Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises helped clarify what types of events are open to insurance when he defined two types of probability. Case probabilities are those events for which we know some of the factors that will determine an outcome, but for which there are other factors we know absolutely nothing about. Football matches fall into this category, as do wars. Class probabilities are those events that we know or assume to know everything about a broadly similar category of events, but with regards to any individual occurrence within the category, we know nothing.

Death is an event that falls into this latter category of class probabilities. Death is, paradoxically perhaps, the most and least certain of all events that will happen in your life. Everyone knows that they will die, but no one knows exactly when, of what, where, or why. Yet because everyone dies, we can all be placed into a category that behaves in a similar way. We know a person’s life expectancy at birth, for example, and we can further refine the category by accounting for differences in factors that affect the probability of death, such as smoking.

Life insurance works because insurance companies can play the averages. Some people who own a life insurance policy will die before the insurance company earns enough money on the premiums to pay the death benefit. In this case the company loses money. It offsets these losses with the gains it makes on those who die long past the point where they have broken even on the premiums they have paid relative to the death benefit they will receive.

Discrimination in the life insurance market is not only a fact of life; it is fair. Every policy holder pays according to his odds of death. People are free to undertake risky activities, but they must pay the price. People who choose to live less risky lives — that is to say, avoiding those activities that increase one’s probability of death such as skydiving or smoking — lose out on the enjoyment these activities may provide, but they gain by paying less for life insurance. There are no free lunches in this world.

Health insurance could possibly exist in this way. There are class probabilities for certain diseases, both communicable and not. There are also known risk factors for diseases and ailments. Smokers are more likely to get lung cancer; bull riders are more at risk of suffering broken bones; economics professors might succumb to carpal tunnel syndrome from typing too many articles about health insurance. Depending on one’s lifestyle, different insurance premiums can be assigned to cover an individual against any number of health concerns.

Some types of medical impairments, however, are not open to being insured. They do not belong to any definable class which lends itself to coverage. The causes of Parkinson’s disease, for example, are still hotly debated and there is no clear explanation as to what causes it; it is just the luck of the draw. Some types of cancer also fall into this category. There is always the hope that in the future we will learn more about these ailments so that they can be assigned a class (or even better, cured), but this is not a possibility at this point in time.

“Ought presupposes can” and before answering whether people “ought” to have health insurance we must answer whether they “can” have it.

For some types of ailments health insurance is a viable option. For others, the possibility of coverage just doesn’t exist. One of the cornerstones of Obamacare is that “you cannot be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.” Not only does this compromise the usefulness of insurance by muddying the definition of a certain class, it actually negates the applicability of the insurance policy. Certain risks are just non-insurable. This is not because of some sinister plot to exclude certain individuals; after all, it is the disease and not the person which is being excluded. But this is just a cold hard economic fact which stems directly from Mises’s distinction between class (insurable) events and case (non-insurable) events.

The recognition that some health risks can be insured must come with a warning: just because health insurance can exist on a limited range of ailments does not answer the question of why it should be mandated. After all, our daily food and water requirements are at least as much a matter of life and death as our daily healthcare requirements, and no one is suggesting that the government mandate coverage for those goods.

Likewise, just because healthcare is expensive is not a necessary or sufficient condition for mandating coverage. There are all sorts of goods and services that are pricey and which insurance coverage to purchase is not mandated. A better question to ask is “why is healthcare so expensive.” Many people have answered that already, whether the blame is to be placed on the obesity epidemic, licensing requirements for physicians, riskier lifestyles among those already covered by mandatory insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), or the bureaucracy of getting new procedures and drugs approved by the government. In any case the insurability of any good or service is ancillary to its cost.

Answering the question of “why” health insurance is needed is fundamentally distinct from the question of “can” we provide health insurance and if so, what ailments are coverable. To the extent that only some diseases and ailments are insurable, health insurance is, at least for now, a somewhat limited undertaking. Obamacare answers the wrong question, and diminishes the usefulness of the health insurance policies that exist through its mandated coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Offering insurance without reference to the specific insurable class, or by purposefully grouping uninsurable risks with an insurable class, removes any economic rationale in determining the appropriate insurance coverage and rates. If you think healthcare pricing seems nonsensical now, just wait until you see what happens when mandated coverage removes any semblance of rational insurance pricing to the healthcare “insurance” market.

Here’s How Much Your Healthcare Costs Rise As You Age

Submitted by Priceonomics

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Imagine working your entire life with the plan to retire at the age of 65, only to declare bankruptcy due to medical costs and losing all your assets.

This isn’t some unlikely nightmare scenario; the rate of senior citizens declaring bankruptcy has more than doubled since 1999, and the leading cause is high healthcare costs. Despite the existence of Medicare insurance for seniors, it doesn’t cover all costs and healthcare can be extremely expensive, especially as you age.

In this analysis, we decided to look at the most recent data on how healthcare spending increases as you age along with Priceonomics customer RegisteredNursing.org. The goal of this is for people to understand just how much higher healthcare costs are the older you get and how sensitive they are to medical inflation rates.

By the time you reach 65 years old, average healthcare costs are $11.3K per person, per year in the United States. This is nearly triple the annual average cost of when you’re in your 20s and 30s. During your adult lifetime, average spending for women is nearly twice as high as for men. Healthcare spending for minority groups like Black and Hispanic Americans is approximately 30% less than on White Americans.

During one’s lifetime, over $400K will be spent on the average American’s healthcare in today’s dollars. And that is if medical costs rise as the same rate as inflation. If medical costs rise at 3% more than inflation, your healthcare will cost over $2MM, the vast majority of which will take place after the age of 45.

Even if your insurance company or Medicare covers most of that bill, the typical American can still be on the hook for a very large sum of money to cover their healthcare costs as they age.

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The Department of Health and Human Services commissions a detailed survey of medical costs dating back to 1999 all the way up to 2016 most recently. The data set, The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), provides detailed healthcare spending data segmented by age and demographics, among other things. The spending figures noted as total average spending per individual, regardless of who is paying it (the insurance company, the individual directly, or some combination between).

When budgeting for your retirement, it’s tempting to think your costs may be much lower in old age. Afterall, your kids may (hopefully) be financially self-sufficient adults and the mortgage on your home may be paid off.

But the big unknown is healthcare expenses. It turns out as you age, your annual healthcare costs go up a lot and despite having insurance you may be on the hook for copays, deductibles, and all sorts of things that aren’t actually covered.

The MEPS data set shows the average spending per person in the United States based on their age group.

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It turns out being born is somewhat expensive and childhood costs peak when you’re under five years old. Healthcare costs are lowest from age 5 to 17 at just at $2,000 per year on average. From then on it’s a steady increase, however, with costs rising to over $11,000 per year when you’re over 65 years old.

The costs of your care may be mostly covered by private insurance or Medicare, but not all costs are always covered and an unexpected bill can have devastating effects on your finances. As one senior citizen relates on their traumatic experience with health insurance:

“My bankruptcy started with back surgery. I had several medical tests that my insurance did not cover. This caused me to fall behind in my medical payments. The next thing I knew, the bills began piling up. I got to the point I owed more than I was making on Social Security.”

Healthcare costs are not evenly distributed. You could be among the tragically unlucky with much higher costs. But not only that, but healthcare spending varies substantially by gender and demographic.

At each stage of life, health care spending for women is substantially higher than for men. The need for more gerontology nurse practitioners and wnhp in the coming years will be vitally important to the success of healthcare programs.

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During time period of age 18 to 44, health spending for females is 84% higher than men for years. Yes, much of this is due to the expense of childbirth, but from age 44 to 64 spending for women is 24% higher than for men and even at age 65+ spending for women is 8% higher.

According to this data, women will need to budget more than men for health care expenses each year. Not only that but women tend to live two more years than men in the United States which requires additional savings. The MEPS data also reveals tremendous inequality in healthcare spending by race and demographic. The following chart shows average spending by demographic group for adults in America:

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There is an average of $3.6K annual healthcare spending on white adult Americans, approximately 70% higher than for Asian, Black, and Hispanic Americans. The root cause and implications of this unequal spending should be studied much further to see if their remedy can improve healthcare outcomes for all.

So if we add up all these annual spending figures how much will your healthcare cost over the course of your lifetime? In today’s dollars, if you’re “average”, you can expect it to cost $414K.

The following chart shows this total spending during various ages in your life. Nearly two-thirds of one’s healthcare spending takes place after your 45th birthday:

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However, there is a lot of reason to believe this estimate of $414K spent on your healthcare is being conservative. First of all, it’s for the “average” person. If you have a health catastrophe, your healthcare spending may be tremendously higher. Second, the above figures assume that healthcare costs in the future increase as the same rate as inflation to arrive at the $414K spending in today’s dollars.

There is a lot of data to suggest that healthcare costs in the United States have been increasing much faster than inflation. One estimate is that over the last two decades, healthcare costs have increased twice as fast as inflation.

Since projecting future healthcare costs is an impossible task to pinpoint with any accuracy, let’s show how much the cost of your healthcare will be under various assumptions about healthcare cost growth rates. The following chart shows how much your lifetime healthcare spending will be if healthcare spending grows at the same rate as inflation versus if it grows slightly faster.

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If healthcare costs increase just one percentage point faster than inflation, the total bill for your healthcare will be $710K, and even that could be a conservative estimate. If healthcare costs rise at three percentage points more than inflation your lifetime healthcare costs will exceed two million dollars!

If this chart isn’t a good reason for why healthcare in America needs to be reformed, perhaps nothing is. Even small increases in healthcare spending rates result in runaway costs for your lifetime healthcare bill. You and your insurance company might be able to plan for a scenario where your lifetime healthcare bill is half a million dollars, but how about if it’s more than seven million dollars?

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As this analysis shows, your healthcare spending is tremendously expensive. Perhaps you might have great health insurance, but if money is spent on your healthcare, someone is paying for it. In large part you pay for it via healthcare premiums, but if that doesn’t cover it then other people’s premiums or taxes will. Either way, high healthcare costs mean high spending for someone. Not only that, but even with the best health insurance, senior citizens are often hit with expensive co-pays or need drugs that their plans won’t cover. These unexpected and large expenses can often wreck one’s finances and result in bankruptcy. As you save up for retirement, it’s important to understand the value of having savings for your future medical expenses, which would be much higher than they are today.

GROSS: Smartphone screens are 300% dirtier than a toilet seat

(Natural News) Do you remember when you last cleaned your smartphone screen? According to a study in the U.K., over a third of users have never cleaned their phones, which means these devices are filthier than a toilet seat. The research was conducted by Insurance2go, a British travel insurance company. Aerobic bacteria, mold, and yeast on your…

A New Study Discovers Two-Thirds Of All Bankruptcies In The United States Are Primarily Caused By Medical Bills

Our health insurance system is theoretically supposed to prevent Americans from going bankrupt when they are hit by huge medical bills. But in case after case, that is simply not happening. Even though more Americans are “covered by health insurance” than ever before, a new study has found that “about 530,000 families each year are financially ruined by medical bills and sicknesses”, and most of those families actually had health insurance. These days, most health insurance policies closely resemble Swiss cheese because they are so full of loopholes, and health insurance companies have become masters at finding ways to wiggle off the hook. So every year hundreds of thousands of American families find themselves facing huge medical bills that they did not expect to be paying, and as a result medical expenses are the primary factor in 66.5 percent of all personal bankruptcy filings in the United States…

For many Americans, putting one’s health first can mean putting one’s financial status at risk. A study of bankruptcy filings in the United States showed that 66.5% were due, at least in part, to medical expenses.

The study, led by Dr. David Himmelstein, Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Hunter College and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School, indicates that about 530,000 families each year are financially ruined by medical bills and sicknesses. It’s the first research of its kind to link medical expenses and bankruptcy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010.

But wasn’t Obamacare supposed to make things better?

Yes, that was what we were promised, but the authors of the study discovered that the percentage of bankruptcies caused by medical bills actually went up by 2 percent after Obamacare went into effect…

The current study found no evidence that the ACA reduced the proportion of bankruptcies driven by medical problems: 65.5% of debtors cited a medical contributor to their bankruptcy in the period prior to the ACA’s implementation as compared to 67.5% in the three years after the law came into effect. The responses also did not differ depending on whether the respondent resided in a state that had accepted ACA’s Medicaid expansion. The researchers noted that bankruptcy is most common among middle-class Americans, who have faced increasing copayments and deductibles in recent years despite the ACA. The poor, who were most helped by the ACA, less frequently seek formal bankruptcy relief because they have few assets (such as a home) to protect and face particular difficulty in securing the legal help needed to navigate formal bankruptcy proceedings.

Even though more Americans are “in the system” than ever before, clearly what we are doing is simply not working.

As I detailed in my article entitled “$3.5 Trillion A Year: America’s Health Care System Has Become One Of The World’s Largest Money Making Scams”, our health care industry has become all about grabbing as much money as humanly possible. We are being taken advantage of when we are at our most vulnerable, and the level of greed that we see in the system is absolutely sickening.

As Dr. David Himmelstein has astutely observed, most Americans are “just one serious illness away from bankruptcy”…

Dr. David Himmelstein, the lead author of the study, a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Hunter College and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School commented: “Unless you’re Bill Gates, you’re just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, copayments and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse. And even the best job-based health insurance often vanishes when prolonged illness causes job loss – just when families need it most.”

You may think that your health insurance policy is somehow different.

You may actually believe that your health insurance company will be there for you when you need them the most.

And they might be. But the truth is that hundreds of thousands of American families have discovered that most health insurance companies will turn on you the moment it becomes advantageous for them to do so.

It turns out that most doctors dislike the health insurance companies too. Just check out these numbers…

Are health insurance policies creating nightmares for physicians and hazards for their patients? A new study finds that nearly nine in ten doctors believe barriers set by insurance plans have led to worsened conditions for patients in need of care.

Researchers with Aimed Alliance, a non-profit that seeks to protect and enhance the rights of health care consumers and providers, say that doctors are so fed up with the constant headaches caused by insurers, two-thirds would recommend against pursuing a career in medicine, and nearly half (48%) are considering a career change altogether.

If health insurance companies acted with compassion and always fulfilled the promises that they made, then the rest of us wouldn’t be so hard on them.

But of course the health insurance companies look like saints when compared to the ultra-greedy pharmaceutical companies. When one pharmaceutical company recently hiked the annual price of a low-cost drug to $375,000, it just about caused Senator Bernie Sanders to cough up a lung…

Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a blistering letter to a pharmaceutical company on Monday, demanding answers about its decision to charge $375,000 for a formerly low-cost drug and calling it corporate greed at its worst.

“Catalyst’s decision to set the annual list price at $375,000 is not only a blatant fleecing of American taxpayers, but is also an immoral exploitation of patients who need this medication,” the independent senator from Vermont wrote. “Simply put, it is corporate greed.

“I am profoundly concerned that Catalyst’s actions will cause patients to suffer or die.”

Fixing our deeply, deeply broken health care system has got to be a top national priority, but at this point neither party has a plan that will turn things around.

So we are stuck with what we have currently got, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post A New Study Discovers Two-Thirds Of All Bankruptcies In The United States Are Primarily Caused By Medical Bills appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

THE DARK OVERLORD 9/11 HACK: RUSSIA’S PAYING ATTENTION

by Joseph P. Farrell, Giza Death Star: Remember that Dark Overlord hack of emails claiming information about 9/11? The hacking group claims to have uncovered a “treasure trove” of information about insurance company lawsuits regarding 9/11, which it would release to people paying the ransom (in Bitcoins). Well, a second tranche of emails has been […]

The post THE DARK OVERLORD 9/11 HACK: RUSSIA’S PAYING ATTENTION appeared first on SGT Report.

Jesse Ventura Wins Lawsuit Against Chris Kyle Estate

“I don’t feel good because the SEALs are my unit and I can’t go out to a reunion anymore, and I’ve been to more SEAL reunions than I have high school reunions and I’ve never missed a high school reunion. And I can’t go now because that was the place I felt safe and I don’t anymore. That’s been violated…and it can never be restored.” – Jesse Ventura (after the verdict)

“All of my witnesses, three of them, were with me all night long; two of them former SEALs and another SEALs wife. And they all testified there was nothing like that that even took place that night…to me it was a slam dunk.” – Jesse Ventura

On Tuesday, July 29th, 2014, a St Paul, Minnesota court awarded Jesse Ventura 1.8 million dollars in the defamation lawsuit against the Chris Kyle estate. 8 jurors agreed that Jesse Ventura had been defamed while only 2 jurors agreed that Chris Kyle’s story was true. Ventura told CBS This Morning hosts that the 1.8 million will pay for his lawyer fees. It’s a hefty price to clear his name, but well worth it.

Jesse Ventura appeared on CBS This Morning to explain why he pursued this lawsuit, “You pursue a lawsuit for the truth.” The former Governor of Minnesota told the hosts. “The whole story was fabricated. I was accused of treason, which in the military is the death penalty…the bottom line is it never happened…Taya Kyle had all her attorney fees paid by insurance. I did not. I incurred two-and-a-half years of lawyer fees that I have to pay to clear my name, and she had insurance paying everything for her.”

Don’t expect to see Jesse Ventura at any future SEAL reunions either, “That was the one place that I always felt safe. I can’t go there anymore. I would be looking over my shoulder now wondering who’s going to come after me next. And so, don’t think I come out of this unscathed.”

After the verdict, Ventura’s lawyers stated that there were no winners in this lawsuit. From the very beginning of the fabricated “sucker-punch” story, Ventura only sought to clear his name. Ventura was accused of saying that the SEALs in Iraq “deserved to lose a few.” Chris Kyle claimed he punched Ventura at Mc P’s bar in 2006, a bar owned by a former SEAL who is close friends with the former governor.

What happened? Or didn’t happen?

Follow Marino Eccher on Twitter for more about the Jesse Ventura Defamation Case.

“An insurance company’s paying for the whole thing anyway. The insurance company of the book publisher…I just have to sue her simply because she is now [the executor of] the estate since he had passed away. It’s just a legal procedure you have to go through because of a death.” – Jesse Ventura

The alleged incident happened on October 12, 2006 at McP’s bar in San Diego.

“McP’s bar is owned by Doc McParkland, who was my seal cadre instructor when I just came out of training. He instructed me in Seal SBI, seal basic indoctrination and he owns that establishment and I would never ever misbehave in the Doc’s establishment. I have too much respect for him, and if people want to truly clear this up, call him.” – Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura’s civil trial of his defamation lawsuit began on Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building & United States Courthouse in St. Paul Minnesota. The judge, jury and court audience, including journalist Marino Eccher, heard the November 2012 deposition of the late Chris Kyle. Kyle told his version of what happened at McP’s bar in San Diego, California in 2006, during the wake of fellow Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor.

In the deposition, Kyle claimed Ventura said the SEALs deserved to lose a few soldiers. If Ventura was as disgusted with soldiers as Kyle claimed, why would the former Governor of Minnesota attend the wake in the first place? Why was Jesse Ventura at the graduation ceremony for the SEAL graduates the following day without any visible marks on his face? Chris Kyle allegedly fled the scene after he “sucker-punched” Ventura because he saw police nearby. Kyle claimed he punched Ventura because he felt Ventura was about to punch him. “I felt I was fixing to get punched,” Kyle told one of Ventura’s lawyers, David Olson in the 2012 deposition. Kyle admitted Ventura never raised his arm or took a full swing at Kyle.

Jesse Ventura was at the bar on the night in question. Ventura arrived at the bar by 8:30 p.m. Asked if he knew Chris Kyle, Ventura responded, “I have no recollection of him whatsoever.” Asked about the alleged comments Kyle said Ventura made, the former governor stated he would never speak that way about military servicemen, “I view those veterans as victims.”

Marion Eccher reported that Ventura “said he wasn’t drinking and hasn’t done so since he started taking blood-thinning medication after leaving the governor’s mansion. The medication also causes him to bleed and bruise easily, he said — to the point where he no longer uses bladed razors and sustains bruises from otherwise unremarkable bumps and knocks.” As for the petition to remove Jesse Ventura from the Underwater Demolition Team/SEAL Association, Ventura explained it was regarding “his continued pursuit of the lawsuit after Kyle’s death, not for the conduct described in Kyle’s story,” according to what Marion Eccher reported at Twincities.com.

Jesse Ventura says the incident never happened. Chris Kyle said it did. What did the witnesses say?

Witnesses who said the incident did not happen:

Bill DeWitt is a former SEAL who underwent Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training with Jesse Ventura beginning in 1969. Pioneer Press journalist Marion Eccher was in the courtroom for the duration of the defamation case and reported, “The DeWitts, Ventura and other BUD/S classmates were in San Diego in 2006 for a reunion and graduation ceremony. They convened at McP’s bar the night before the ceremony — the same night Kyle and his colleagues were at the bar for the wake of slain SEAL Michael Monsoor.”

Mr. DeWitt did not see or hear of any bar fight that involved Jesse Ventura. If someone had punched Ventura, he told Kyle estate attorney Leita Walker, “You’d have had a whole bunch of 60-year-olds all over you.” Bill DeWitt stated if Ventura was being loud, as Kyle claimed, Dewitt would have heard it. Dewitt was asked about a 2013 petition to have Ventura removed from the Underwater Demolition Team-SEAL Association. When the petition reached DeWitt, he did not sign it, adding, “You weren’t there.” If DeWitt thought there was any validity to Kyle’s claim he would have confronted Ventura.

Charlene DeWitt is Bill DeWitt’s wife. Before McP’s, she had never met Jesse Ventura. “I was eavesdropping on Jesse,” she said in court. She overheard Ventura say, “I don’t think this war is worth one SEAL dying for.” Marion Eccher wrote, “She heard him criticize the war in Iraq but didn’t hear him badmouth fallen soldiers or argue with younger servicemen. She said she didn’t see him get into a fistfight or sport a black eye or bruised face in the following days.”

Bill and Charlene DeWitt were with Ventura during the graduation ceremony that took place the following day. Neither recalled witnessing a bar fight, nor did they hear anything about the alleged incident in the days and years afterwards.

Robert Leonard was Jesse Ventura’s classmate from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, who also testified that he didn’t see a confrontation involving Jesse Ventura. He didn’t hear about a fight or a confrontation after the alleged incident either. Robert Leonard did not believe Ventura would say we deserved to lose a few soldiers, “That just seems like an unbelievable statement.”

Witnesses who claim the incident did happen:

Laura DeShazo is the sister of a Navy SEAL and an education specialist for Utah’s public schools. Laura, her sister and another female took a picture with Ventura that night. She testified, “I saw Mr. Ventura get hit,” but claims she didn’t know who hit him. She allegedly watched the incident for a few seconds before turning away. She claims the incident happened on the bar’s patio.

However, Marion Eccher pointed out that Chris Kyle said the incident happened on a sidewalk outside the patio, “Kyle’s testimony in a 2012 deposition, place the incident on a sidewalk outside the patio and in the opposite direction from where DeShazo said she witnessed it.”

Eccher reported that DeShazo “was certain the fight took place on the bar’s patio, where the wake was held and where Ventura and his Navy classmates had gathered for a reunion of their own.” Eccher also wrote that “some details of her account — particularly where the former Minnesota governor was standing when she saw the incident – don’t match with other versions of the story.”

John Kelly is a current Navy SEAL who was also at McP’s on October 12, 2006. Kelly testified he heard Ventura talking about his opposition to the Iraq War. Kelly said he saw Ventura on the ground after the alleged incident. Kelly claimed he saw Chris Kyle run from the scene. Kelly said Kyle later told him he punched Ventura. Kelly met Kyle at another bar the same night. At that bar, Kyle allegedly told Kelly he punched Ventura after Ventura the SEALs deserved to lose a few.

Andrew Paul is also a Navy SEAL who was at the bar that night for the wake of Michael Monsoor. In a deposition played in the courtroom, he testified he did not see the punch, but did see Ventura getting up off the ground with a bloody lip. He also claims he heard Ventura say, “I’m going to fucking kill you.” Apparently, no one else heard Ventura say that. Paul described Ventura’s view on 9/11 as radical. Paul said Kyle told him about the incident the next day. Andrew Paul was Chris Kyle’s superior.

Rosemary DeShazo is a Utah doctor and sister of a SEAL. She is also the sister of another eyewitness, Laura DeShazo. Rosemary did not see the fight her sister claims to have seen. Rosemary testified she heard Ventura say that Michael Monsoor “probably deserved it.” She also claimed Ventura said, “They die all the time.”

Bob Gassoff is also a Navy SEAL who was at the wake at McP’s. In a video deposition, Gassoff said he heard a commotion around the area where the alleged incident took place.
Jeremiah Dinnell is a former Navy SEAL who was also at the bar that night. He claims he tried to buy Ventura beer. According to his testimony, Ventura turned him down because he didn’t drink because of blood-thinner medication. Dinnell is the second person who claims to have actually seen the sucker-punch. Marion Eccher wrote, “As [Dinnell] was moving between bars, he said, he saw Ventura take an aggressive stance and say SEALs deserved to lose a few men in Iraq. Then Kyle hit him and Ventura went down…Dinnell seemed to say in his deposition he saw it on the patio, but said Wednesday it happened on the sidewalk.”

Kevin Lacz served with Chris Kyle in Iraq as a SEAL. He did not see the alleged punch, but claims he saw Ventura get up off of the ground. He also said he saw Chris Kyle leaving the scene. Though Chris Kyle claimed in his deposition he fled the scene because police were in the area, as seen above, one of the eyewitnesses stated Kyle was in another bar, apparently within walking distance, to tell the story of the sucker punch.

John Jones is a SEAL reservist who was at McP’s the night of the alleged incident. Jones was close friends with Chris Kyle. Jones didn’t see the alleged punch but claims he did see Ventura getting up off the ground. Jones did not hear Ventura say anything bad about soldiers.

The Rough Draft

There were many drafts for Chris Kyle’s story about what happened outside the bar on October 12, 2006, ending with a refined version of Chris Kyle punching Jesse Ventura. The book was written by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, and Jim DeFelice and was released in 2012.

Journalist Marion Eccher has been in the courtroom from the beginning of this trial and he will be there until it’s over. “Court Anderson, one of Ventura’s attorneys, asked [Jim] DeFelice why he’d tweaked the story in various drafts and removed details that didn’t make the final version, including Ventura’s head hitting the ground, the former Minnesota governor staying down and the police showing up. Did DeFelice trim those parts because he thought they’d make the story easier to verify, Anderson asked? No, the author said — it was simply part of refining the story in the writing process. Anderson asked if DeFelice ever checked with Coronado police to see if they’d reported the incident. He had not, he said.”

The Verdict

Marion Eccher was present in the courtroom when the civil trial of Jesse Ventura’s defamation lawsuit came to a close. Ventura’s attorneys believe they have proven their case that Chris Kyle lied about the sucker punch and that the lie damaged Jesse Ventura. They believe photos taken after the alleged sucker punch prove there were no signs that Jesse Ventura had been in a fight.

Marion Eccher reported, “For Ventura to win, jurors must find that Kyle’s story was false and that Kyle acted with what’s known as “actual malice” in telling it — he either knew it wasn’t true or acted with reckless disregard for the facts. They must also find Ventura was damaged by the story.”

After a three week trial, Jesse Ventura was awarded 1.8 million dollars in damages in his lawsuit against the Chris Kyle estate. His attention will now turn to the publisher of Chris Kyle’s book, HarperCollins. Ventura told CBS This Morning, “They published the book and did no due diligence to find out if the story was true.” HarperCollins plans on removing the passage about the “sucker-punch” from Kyle’s book, according to what HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum told The Associated Press.

“All I wanted to do is clear my name and it has nothing to do with a widow or anything like that. It was me against an insurance company.” – Jesse Ventura

Most of the above story was based on Marion Eccher’s articles at Twincities.com. Here are the links to the original articles by Marion Eccher:

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JULY 18

Here’s the YouTube video I made when Jesse Ventura decided to sue Chris Kyle:

Preventive medical care: It’s free, except when it’s not

His insurance company told him it would be covered 100 percent, with no copayment from him and no charge against his deductible. The nation’s 1-year-old health law requires most insurance plans to cover all costs for preventive care including colon cancer screening. So Dunphy had the procedure in April.

Then the bill arrived: $1,100.

Dunphy, a 61-year-old Phoenix small business owner, angrily paid it out of his own pocket because of what some prevention advocates call a loophole. His doctor removed two noncancerous polyps during the colonoscopy. So while Dunphy was sedated, his preventive screening turned into a diagnostic procedure. That allowed his insurance company to bill him.

Like many Americans, Dunphy has a high-deductible insurance plan. He hadn’t spent his deductible yet. So, on top of his $400 monthly premium, he had to pay the bill.

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