During the CNN/Tea Party debate on Monday of this week, Ron Paul said that the government should not be responsible for paying for healthcare costs of those who could afford private insurance but chose not to purchase it. Instead, Paul said, those costs should be borne by private charities.

Unfortunately, as shown by the case of the man who made Paul a household name, private charities don't always step up to the plate.

<< But as Abramovitch notes, Snyder, a volunteer strategist who eventually became a campaign manager for Paul's presidential bid, fell ill of pneumonia during the campaign. Snyder did not have health insurance, like the hypothetical example given by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, and stacked up $400,000 in medical bills. On June 26, 2008, exactly two weeks after Paul ended his bid for the presidency, Synder passed away due to complications from his pneumonia. Synder's family could not pay the bills left by Snyder, so friends set up an online campaign to raise the money for Synder's procedures.

<< Snyder experienced Paul's world of free market health care, a peculiar system that distinguishes the United States as the only Western country that does not provide basic care to its citizens. A look back at the charity effort launched to save Snyder's life reveals a grim failure. Despite Paul's insistence that charity is the appropriate response to America's uninsured crisis, Snyder's friends raised $34,870.53, far short of the $400,000 necessary to pay off his bills. >>

Although there is no indication in the article that Snyder died because of a lack of health insurance, about 45,000 Americans die every year for that very reason.

Source:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/09/14/318633/ron-paul-campaign-manage-died-uninsured/

Snyder was a real pioneer in using the internet for political purposes. He deserves recognition for that reason.