Being Poor Ought To Be No Fun, County Argues

If you’re 19, earn minimum wage at best and spend what little money you have on things such as mountain bike racing, skiing and hanging out with friends, does that make you poor?

These are among the questions being debated by the justices of the state Supreme Court, thanks to a Sandpoint case that’s been appealed all the way to Boise.

Here’s why: The young man in question, Jason Foy, broke his right femur while skiing at Schweitzer Mountain in 1996. He needed surgery, and the bill stacked up to $14,675.

Foy didn’t have the money to pay it, so Bonner General Hospital applied to Bonner County for medical indigency funds. That’s money that covers the medical costs of poor people who have nowhere else to turn.

The county can, however, go after people once they’re well to get them to pay the county back.

But this case didn’t get that far. Bonner County commissioners, relying on new case law, rejected the hospital’s claim because, they argued, that if it weren’t for his “lifestyle choices,” Foy would be able to earn the money to pay off the medical bills within three years.

Of course, at the minimum wage he’d earned in short-lived jobs such as busboy, shelf stocker and dishwasher, that wouldn’t be mathematically possible.

The new case law came in a case where the patient was earning $3,000 a month but had big credit card bills for luxuries such as a satellite dish. In that case, the court ruled that the man couldn’t get out of paying his medical bills just because of “lifestyle choices” to spend the money elsewhere.

The hospital argued that Foy’s case was different.

“He was broke by any definition, well before he was ever hurt,” attorney Thomas E. Cook argued.

But Bonner County deputy prosecutor John Topp noted, “On the day that Mr. Foy became injured, he was supposed to be looking for work, instead he went skiing. … But for his lifestyle choices, he would not be in the financial situation that he is actually in.”

The young skier could have bought medical insurance with the money he spent for a lift ticket, Topp argued.

The hospital noted that after-the-fact argument could be made about any poor, uninsured person.

Judge James Michaud called the case “a close call,” because the evidence showed Foy was “voluntarily unemployed at times and under-employed at times.”

On the other hand, he noted, “How many of us had insurance at 19?”

Being young and able-bodied - Foy fully recovered after the surgery - he should pay the taxpayers back, Michaud said, but he can’t do it in three years, which is the legal standard for granting medical indigency funds.

“Hey, make that five years instead of three years, and maybe you’d have won the case,” Michaud told Topp.

The county appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, asking it either to overturn the District Court ruling, or, “in the alternative, give counties throughout the state guidance on what this court means by `lifestyle choices.”’

The court will rule on the appeal within the next six months.

Shhhh, and no snoring

Boise’s big, downtown library sees 640,000 visitors a year, but not all of them come for the reading and research materials.

Some, particularly homeless folks buffeted by harsh weather, see the public library - just blocks from a rescue mission and the river - as a convenient place to nap and store their worldly possessions. Others want to bring in food and have a snack there, drop off disruptive kids, chat on cell phones, ride in on in-line skates or even fight.

All those things have happened, which is why the Boise library has adopted a new security policy that bans all those behaviors, along with pets, weapons, smoking and more.

The three security guards who patrol the library don’t hesitate to toss people out for breaking the rules, even if they have to wake them first.

Library director Marilyn Poertner says security problems at the library don’t come from any particular group of people. “I really don’t think it’s appropriate to stereotype,” she said.

She just wants everyone to use the library for its intended purposes.

The new policy states, “Patrons whose conduct is inconsistent with the library’s mission will be encouraged to conform their behavior, or asked to leave the library.”