After $1 million in insurance payments for sick child, dumb athlete opts out of COBRA
Image by mwlguide via Flickr
I really almost can’t believe what I’ve just read in Sports Illustrated. In an otherwise pretty formulaic story about an aging journeyman catcher, Sal Fasano, who wants one last shot at the big leagues, Jeff Pearlman throws us this gem of a paragraph:
Alas, life — and, as the nation is now learning, health care — isn’t always so simple. Fasano appeared in 15 games as a backup with the Indians last year, earning a little more than $300,000 before the organization let him go. Entering this season, he had the option of purchasing Cobra health coverage that would run him somewhere around $20,000, but would continue the high-level care. Fasano, whose family lives modestly in Minooka, Ill., says he and Kerri struggled with the decision, before deciding not to go that route. “People don’t always understand the reality of a situation,” Fasano says. “Yes, I made [decent money] last year. But I was taxed at 46 percent. To take a $20,000 chunk out of that is huge. We couldn’t afford it.”
Wait a second. Fasano therefore made after tax at least $138,000 last year. His son, according to the story, suffers from a heart condition that has cost over $1 million dollars to treat. The article claims Major League Baseball healthcare is among the finest in the world, covering, “pretty much everything you can think of.” And yet Fasano can’t spend 15% of his net income for the year on COBRA, to cover his family and terribly sick son?
$108,000 plus health care isn’t enough money for a family of five to live on for a year? Yes, I understand the numbers don’t sound like a lot of money, but surely Fasano realized long ago that he would never be a star and salted away money in investments and savings, right? Surely he’s living a middle class lifestyle and not in an MTV Crib, right?
The article goes on to explain that this season, Fasano was hoping for one more shot in the bigs, one more shot at employer-paid health insurance, for his son. Fasano was signed by the Colorado Rockies, but never made it back up to the Show. So, no gold plated health care for Sal, only the inferior Minor League version. It’s worth mentioning here that if Fasano or anyone lands a job that comes with healthcare benefits, they can cancel your COBRA payments almost immediately. So, if Fasano had purchased COBRA coverage and subsequently made it back, to a Big League roster, he probably wouldn’t have ended up spending $20,000 anyway.
Which means essentially that Fasano took a huge and unreasonable gamble and lost on health care for his family and especially his sick child. Pearlman writes:
Next Thursday, Santo will undergo his third — and, hopefully, final — major heart surgery. The Fasanos are uncertain how much of the operation, which will costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, will be covered by their minor league-provided health plan, which is far inferior to the MLB option.
Forgive me for feeling empathy only for Sal’s son, but not for Sal Fasano. A system was in place for his family’s health care needs to be met, and he opted out of it. Now he’ll have to turn way outside of the system to cover those surgeries, perhaps appealing to some of his multimillionaire friends or the players union, two options most Americans aren’t lucky enough to have.
When those opposed to health care reform question why health care needs to be mandatory and fines need to be levied on those who opt-out, remember dolts like Sal Fasano. Complaining about his high taxes while earning in the top 1% of the country, Fasano reminds me of the nutjobs telling President Obama to keep the government’s paws off of Medicare.
Pearlman, the SI writer, tried to paint a sympathetic picture of Sal, but really, isn’t the story here about the series of unneccessary gambles by Fasano–on his job, his family, his sick child–gone horribly wrong? Did Fasano think his child was cured? That more surgeries wouldn’t be needed? When faced with the hard numbers, even six figure earners can find justifications to make choices that run counter to their own economic interests–that’s exactly what Fasano did. Does Fasano have a financial planner? With a brain? Who countenanced this?
For those of us who have to pay for health care out of pocket, or those who go without because we really can’t afford it, the story of Sal Fasano serves as both an omen and a reminder of how urgent health care reform continues to be in this country. To protect Sal Fasano, and Sal Fasano’s child, from people like Sal Fasano.
Catcher Sal Fasano plays for son who has heart condition – Jeff Pearlman – SI.com.
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[...] original post here: Paul Smalera – Living Through 1500 – After $1 million in insurance … Tags: article-goes, bigs, colorado-rockies, health-insurance, Insurance, more-shot, season, [...]
While I agree with the premise of your opinion, we don’t know the complete details of his situation, for instance he probably thought his career was secured and stepped on the golden treadmill with a large expensive house and cars etc. This in no way excuses his behavior but people under stress often make horrible decisions and athletes, movie stars and others who finally “make it” are prone to financial disasters. I have seen this time and again in the entertainment business. His agent is supposed to watch out for this sort of thing…but agents tend to take their fees and move on when things turn sour. The next article on this guy will be his bankruptcy.
There is of course the whole other can of worms of athlete’s financial blunders– a well trod territory, where even those who have earned tens of millions from the game end up broke and in some cases homeless. One of the big things that athletes fail to do in these cases is take finances away from agents and family members and put them into the hands of fiscally conservative, objective accountants. Basically they need to think of themselves as a small corporation, and have the appropriate independent officers to check each others’ actions and provide unbiased advice. Unfortunately this setup is rarely the case. I really want to know more though, about why Pearlman didn’t press on the COBRA thing. How can we feel bad for Fasano when the choice, as laid out in the story, seems so poorly made?
In response to another comment. See in context »I have known the Fasanos for many years – rest assured he did not* buy an expensive house and expensive cars. He has never made huge money. Sal lives in a very conservative house with a vehicle for himself and one for his wife. Don’t make judgements about people you don’t know. As far as deciding not to take COBRA insurance, what is not explained in Pearlman’s article, is that major league insurance covers a player until April of the following season. So they were covered under MLB insurance until April 2009 – when the Rockies signed Sal, O’Dowd promised him that he would get a Big league call up, even if it was just for one day. Which would have covered him until April of 2010. Although 300K sounds like a money, even 148K after taxes would allow most of us to live decently, what uninformed people don’t stop to consider is that only do these players have to maintain their off season homes, all year round, they also have to pay for living accomadations where ever they are playing. So this year Sal was in Colorado Springs paying for an apartment there, rental on furnishing, utilities etc…all the expenses of a normal life in addition to his typical living expenses in Minooka, which are by no means lavish. He knew his son would have to have a third open heart surgery, BUT the decision to not purchase COBRA insurance was made based on the false promises of the Rockies. The assumption of many people that the “richer” ball players share with the less fortunate ones couldn’t be farther from the truth. Don’t judge situations where you don’t have all the facts. Don’t insult and condemn a man for making decisions that seemed acceptable based on the information that he was given. And most certainly don’t imply that Sal has not done everything in his power to provide for his family. He is a fantastic individual, one of the truly good people – he is a great family man, his is kind, honest and generous. How dare any of you impy otherwise.
*typo corrected per commenter.
In response to another comment. See in context »Nitpicky,
First, I corrected your comment per the missing word as you just wrote in.
Second, thank you for adding in additional information about the situation. Everything you said sounds plausible to me. And I’ll add in that the more I think about it, it’s unfair to have used the word “dumb” in the headline. To me it was and remains a dumb decision, but it reads as if I’m saying Sal is dumb, and that’s not what I intended, nor, as you point out, do I know him. In fact Pearlman has written about Fasano before, quite fondly, so I would agree with your thoughts on his character too.
These situations happen to the best of us. I really don’t want to get bogged down into Fasano’s details because, besides Pearlman’s column which I take to be accurate, and your comments, which I believe but cannot verify, I am not privy to the whole story.
But as I wrote at the bottom of my post and in another comment, the real problem I am addressing is that these types of situations exist at all in our current system of health care. When even someone earning six figures like Fasano has to think, “well, I’m due to have insurance until April 2009, so I’ll ride out the interim until my callup happens,” that means there’s still a period of time where he’s foregoing coverage for his family. (Or at least the high quality Major League coverage.)
Although I don’t know the whole story of Sal’s finances, it really continues to look to me like a no brainer to pay for COBRA if your great health insurance is going to be interrupted for even one day and you are dealing with this kind of illness, tough or not. COBRA is paid for by the month, prorated to the day. It’s the best and only system we have to deal with this sort of problem. It’s a mystery to me why Fasano or anyone in his shoes would opt out.
And if the Rockies GM did make that promise to Sal, it’s grounds for a lawsuit, as it’s a verbal rider to his contract that is probably illegal under the CBA, though I’m sure Fasano’s working class attitude would preclude him from suing the team.
Again, thanks for writing in with more information. while I’m pretty sure we’re not going to see eye to eye on why I wrote this, I hope for the best for Sal’s son. And maybe someone from MLB will see this and give the Rockies GM a phone call.
In response to another comment. See in context »His son had surgery yesterday – it was the third and hopefully final surgery to repair his heart. The is a tremendous amount that goes in professional sports that we never hear about inless you happen to be close personal friends with a player. For the guys that never get the “BIG” money – many assume that just because they made it to the big leagues they are rolling in money, which is not the case. Guys from Fasano’s time did not get the huge signing bonuses that many players get today – so he didn’t have that to live off while working his way through the minor league system. No one can exist on what those guys make, but particularly a man with a family.
In response to another comment. See in context »I appreciate you acknowledging that all the facts are not known.
And again, I really appreciate your adding some more context to the story. I think it’s even more powerful now.
In response to another comment. See in context »Nitpicky,
You are of course right while I was trying to point out your very point, that we don’t have the whole story, I make an assumption based on my own experience and it was of course wrong. I never meant to demean the man or his decision. In my own life I have received an unexpected windfall and saw the money disappear in taxes and lawyers and accountants and investments made to keep the money flowing and often friends would assume I was rich. Far from it. So I understood the impression of money often does not match up to the facts.
My apologies all round, I will be more careful of my words in the future.
In response to another comment. See in context »How can we feel bad for a minor league baseball player who’s out of work and has a sick child? I have no idea. It just seems impossible. I’m going to go write an article about how he’s stupid. Maybe that will help.
Well heyitsdave, let’s start with the fact that he wasn’t out of work. He just didn’t get the “big promotion” he thought he would get. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the luxury of planning my life and finances around the hope that I might wake up tomorrow making ten times the money I’m making today. I can’t imagine the stress of having a sick child, but I know nothing would stand between my last dollar and making sure that child had the treatments he needed. And finally I’ll add that the worst part is that choices like these have to be made under our current system of care. So the more we understand the rock and hard place between which even wealthy athletes can be trapped when it comes to health care, the more I hope the case for reform becomes clear.
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