In a bizarre case, 59-year-old Richard James Verone was jailed in Gastonia, N.C., on charges of larceny after allegedly robbing an RBC Bank for $1 so he could get health care in prison. He had handed a female teller a note demanding the money and claiming that he had a gun, according to the police report. He proceeded to wait for the police right there.
Police arrested Verone where he sat. He was unarmed. Verone said he asked for $1 to show that his motives were medical, not monetary. With a growth in his chest, two ruptured disks and no job, Verone hoped a three-year stint in prison would afford him the health care he needed.
But the charge of larceny, not armed robbery, is unlikely to keep Verone behind bars for more than 12 months. He is being held in Gaston County Jail on a $2,000 bond, according to a spokesman for the jail, and is scheduled to appear in court June 28.
It's been more than a year since President Obama signed landmark health care reform legislation. The bill was designed to provide health insurance to millions of Americans who currently lack it. But one year later, the number of uninsured remains roughly the same. That's largely because most of the bill's major elements aren't due to be implemented for another three years. This month, Republican governors fought against federal rules requiring states to maintain current levels of health-care coverage for the poor and disabled.
Verone's plan was to go to jail for three years, then be released in time to start collecting Social Security.
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