A Nobel Prize-winning physicist sold his medal for $765,000 to pay medical bills

[Calista241]

Source: Vox

Leon Lederman won a Nobel Prize in 1988 for his pioneering physics research.

But in 2015, the physicist, who passed away Wednesday, sold his Nobel Prize medal for $765,000 to pay his mounting medical bills. The University of Chicago professor began to suffer from memory loss in 2011, and died in an Idaho nursing home.

In a lot of ways (and as others have observed) Lederman’s story represents the best and worst of America. Lederman was born in the 1920s to a father who worked in a laundry facility. He went on to discover the Higgs boson subatomic particle, the so-called “God particle” that you can read more about here.

But even an accomplished physicist and university professor isn’t immune from America’s sky-high health care prices. The United States routinely has health care prices well-above the rest of the world. A day in an American hospital, for examples, costs an average of $5,220 here — compared to $765 in Australia or $424 in Spain.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/10/4/17936626/leon-lederman-nobel-prize-medical-bills

[Bayard]

1. Should not happen

Obviously. Our only hope is universal healthcare, especially for those who don't have Nobel Prize medals to sell.

[pnwmom]

2. Universal healthcare won't solve his problem. He needed long term residential care in a nursing home

Medicaid doesn't cover that unless you have gone through most of your assets.

[Bayard]

3. Universal healthcare is not Medicaid

Although Medicaid and Medicare would get swept into it.

It means you don't die because you can't pay your medical bills.

[pnwmom]

6. Longterm residential nursing home care wouldn't get swept into universal healthcare.

At least, not for people who still had substantial assets. And that was the source of his large bills, not medical care.

[BigmanPigman]

4. Yep, my bill was $1,000 a day AFTER my insur covered their part.

That is WITH the ACA and subsidies. My healthcare costs are 33% of my yearly disabled income. I have two preexisting conditions and my bills will go up another 33% this coming year IF the GOP and Kavanaugh don't destroy the ACA completely.

If the Dems run on affordable health care as their only issue they will win. The majority of voters in both parties want this!

[PennyK]

5. Not quite sure this is correct

According to The Times, "He and his wife, Ellen, moved to their place in Idaho, in Driggs, just before his 90th birthday. Found to have dementia, he was advised by his doctors to live in peaceful surroundings. In 2015 the couple agreed to let an online auction company sell his Nobel Prize medal. The proceeds, $765,002 before taxes, were set aside for future medical expenses." it doesn't appear that he died in poverty.

[JI7]

8. was he taken advantage of due to dementia ?

[FakeNoose]

7. The real tragedy is that he wasn't born in Canada

He would still be alive today, and probably still have his Nobel medal.

[mysteryowl]

9. OMG!!!!

[MarcA]

10. Meanwhile the useless hypocrites like McConnell and Kavanaugh

get their gold star taxpayer healthcare while denying benefits to others.

[potone]

11. This makes me feel sick.

We have to get universal single-payer health care. It is the least that we should demand that any Democratic candidate for Congress support.

[dalton99a]

12. More details:

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/physicist-leon-ledermans-nobel-prize-goes-auction-block-n365671
Physicist Leon Lederman's Nobel Prize Medal Sells for $765,000
by Alan Boyle / May.27.2015 / 7:51 PM CDT / Updated May.29.2015 / 6:23 PM CDT

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. This is misleading. His bills were for long term residential care

That has nothing to do with "medical bills". Those would be covered by Medicare for the most part anyway. We should all be so lucky to have such a valuable asset to sell.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. We should all sell off everything of value in order to afford a Nursing Home

So, you want to keep that jewelry from your grandmother? Do you think your awards are worth saving? Not if you don't want to burden your children with your old age care. Then of course there is the 20% you have to cover that most health insurance wont cover, Not even Medicare.

This is just so typical of capitalism. The uber rich cons and thieves drain every last dime out of you before you die. Do nursing home executives really need a million dollars a year to make ends meet? Do doctors really have to charge $1,500 an hour? Does all profits really have to go to the few with the most capital?

And we here in the most capitalist country on earth don't even see what is wrong with this. Historians will wonder why we allowed this.

[Owl]

15. A bit off topic... why would someone buy someone else's medal?

[RobinA]

19. This Was Exactly

my reaction. And for that kind of money. Weird.

[haele]

21. The University of Chicago might have bought it.

As some sort of philanthropic gesture and tax write off. They can use it for PR and prestige purposes - "We employed a Nobel Prize winner"

Collectors are not just private parties.

Haele

[ansible]

16. Happened to my grandmother too, an entire lifetime of her savings gone in 4 years at nursing home

It was a pretty sobering experience, I've already talked with my parents and made arrangements to take care of them instead when they're too old.

[SunSeeker]

17. Only in America.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

20. So wrong :( n/t