It turns out that Retton is worth $2M. It turns out that Retton chose not to have health insurance, despite the fact that she could have gotten it under the ACA for ~$600/mo, with her preexisting conditions. It turns out that Retton has fundraised nearly $500k. It turns out that Retton is being very closed mouth about everything all of a sudden.raison de arizona wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:43 am Worth quoting the next paragraph.Thankfully, people have been generous. What a messed up healthcare system we have.On a fundraising page set up to help with her mother’s medical expenses, Kelley asked for prayers, adding, “ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom.”
https://www.spotfund.com/story/a2e0582c ... 349014f761
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/c ... 154792007/Months after hospitalization, Mary Lou Retton won't answer basic questions about health care, donations
Olympic great Mary Lou Retton said in an NBC interview she now has health insurance after her hospitalization. When asked by USA TODAY Sports if donations are paying for it, there was no reply.
Over the past three months, 8,319 donors have given Olympic great Mary Lou Retton nearly half a million dollars — $459,324 to be exact — after her daughter went on social media to announce that Retton was “fighting for her life” with “a very rare form of pneumonia” and was not insured.
Also over those past three months, USA TODAY Sports has been in contact with Retton, her daughter McKenna Kelley and two friends of the family via numerous text messages and phone calls, trying to get answers to questions that, as of Monday afternoon, remain unaddressed.
Asked in several text messages and a voicemail on Monday about her lack of health insurance until recently, her financial situation and why she refuses to divulge where she was hospitalized or the name of her doctor(s) more than two months after she left the hospital, Retton, 55, declined to reply.
Retton’s unwillingness to answer the most basic questions about her health care is receiving increased scrutiny for one simple reason: the decision by Kelley and her three sisters to seek public donations for their mother on the crowdsourcing site spotfund.com. Had they not done that, Retton’s illness likely would have remained a private matter, never bursting into public view and enticing so many strangers to send money.
When asked by NBC why she wasn’t covered by health insurance, Retton said, “When Covid hit and after my divorce (in 2018), and all my pre-existing (conditions) — I’ve had over 30 operations of orthopedic stuff — I couldn’t afford it.”
When told that an insurance agent contacted by USA TODAY Sports found two plans charging $545 and $680 per month for which someone with her mother’s medical history would qualify, Kelley said that Retton had once been covered by health insurance but “because she was not able to work and give speeches for two years due to the pandemic, she gave up her insurance.”
Retton was “about to get (health insurance) again but didn’t, and then she got sick,” Kelley said.
In a text message to USA TODAY Sports Saturday, Kelley would not comment on how much of the nearly half-million dollars has been accounted for, but said that “all remaining funds” would go to a charity of her mother’s choice. She offered no timetable or further information.
Word on the street (well, the formerly bird site) is that she stands politically against Obama, so she refused to get ACA coverage, aka ObamaCare. Which would have covered her nicely.
Philly Boondoggle
The community notes point that out. I'm glad if it's not true.