Man Says Republican Senate Candidate Literally Took His Health Care Away

Democrats have hammered Republican applicants on this political cycle for supporting insurance policies that will jeopardize other folks’s well being care. But Jim Songer of Huntingburg, Indiana, says GOP Senate candidate Mike Braun for my part took his insurance coverage away.

Like a large number of Republicans operating for Congress at the moment, Braun says he truly  does prefer well being care insurance policies that offer protection to in poor health other folks from unfair insurance coverage practices, a message this is opposite to his ― and his birthday party’s ― precise coverage file.

But Braun has a trump card: In his trade profession, he has in truth supplied insurance coverage to other folks ― a truth he has relentlessly highlighted in debates and TV commercials.

“Just like I’ve taken care of my employees, I’ll take care of Hoosiers,” Braun stated all through a Tuesday evening debate along with his opponent, Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.

But now not all of Braun’s former staff believe that evaluation, just like the a number of who’ve sued the corporate for salary robbery through the years.

And then there’s Jim Songer. He labored for Braun’s auto portions corporate till July, when he landed within the sanatorium with blood loss because of serious anemia.

“While I was in the hospital, Mike Braun fired me and backdated my termination so my insurance had been canceled,” Songer says in a Donnelly TV advert that first aired remaining month. “I was devastated.”

It’s a devastating advert. Braun’s corporate, Meyer Distributing, fired Songer in July ― as Braun’s marketing campaign was once operating commercials about what a compassionate boss he’s been.

“There is no such thing as health care when something happens to you and it gets taken away,” Songer says within the advert. “And that’s what Mike Braun’s company did.”

Since the advert aired on Oct. eight, neither Braun’s marketing campaign nor his corporate has contradicted Songer’s model of occasions. Neither answered to requests for remark for this text.

In an interview, Songer, 58, stated he’d labored for Meyer Distributing for a 12 months, promoting auto equipment to dealerships across the nation. He stated that during July he began feeling dizzy when he would rise up. After lacking 3 days of labor in mattress, he known as his manager on July 21, fearing he’d misplaced his task, however his manager stated he hadn’t been fired. The subsequent day, he went to a sanatorium and won blood transfusions to regard his anemia. It took a number of days to get better.

After he were given out of the sanatorium, the manager informed him he’d misplaced his task.

A “Notification of Termination” file dated July 23 signifies Songer have been fired for “job abandonment” ― i.e., now not appearing as much as paintings and now not calling in for the 3 days he was once bedridden. Another file, a letter from a human assets worker with a Meyer Distributing letterhead, says his remaining day was once July 16, as a result of that was once the remaining day he’d are available in. “Additionally, his last day of insurance coverage would have also been July 16, 2018,” the letter says.

The backdated termination supposed Songer was once caught with a $28,000 sanatorium invoice that his corporate insurance coverage would have paid if he hadn’t been fired. Songer stated he misplaced his rental and has no method of paying the sanatorium.

“It’s been kind of a humiliating experience,” he stated. “I’ve always been so healthy my whole life.”

When Songer filed for unemployment insurance coverage, Meyer Distributing fought the declare, pronouncing he’d been fired for reason, consistent with paperwork Songer shared with HuffPost. But an administrative regulation pass judgement on dominated in Songer’s prefer, mentioning a state regulation that claims other folks fired for lacking paintings because of sickness shouldn’t be disqualified. “The claimant was involuntarily unemployed as the result of a medically substantiated physical disability after making reasonable efforts to maintain the employment relationship,” the executive regulation pass judgement on wrote.

Though the Braun marketing campaign hasn’t defended itself from Songer’s accusation, it has fought again in opposition to different assaults on Meyer Distributing’s well being plans. The Donnelly marketing campaign has highlighted Meyer’s $five,000 deductible for people, which means that that if an worker in truth makes use of clinical services and products all through the 12 months, the coverage doesn’t duvet prices till the employee has spent $five,000 of his or her personal cash.

The moderate deductible for an employer-sponsored well being plan is $1,573, consistent with the latest knowledge from the Kaiser Family Foundation. So Braun’s corporate’s well being plan is a long way stingier than maximum. But Braun has maintained that since the general public don’t exceed their deductible anyway, he must get credit score for having low per thirty days premiums.

“The premium cost is the only thing that’s for certain,” he stated at Tuesday’s debate. “My premium cost is 70 bucks a month.”