Navy veteran John Weigel was only one of the hundreds of individuals who saw Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at various Democratic town halls over the weekend — but Weigel had a very unique reason for attending.
Weigel, a 58-year-old with Stage IV Huntington's disease who served for 20 years, brought a hospital bill with him to the town hall event in Carson City, Nevada. The bill is for roughly $139,000.
When Sanders asked Weigel how the $139,000 bill came to be, Weigel explained that Tricare claims he failed to renew his coverage.
"It's because somehow after the fact they claim that my Tricare — I chose to end it. Which I didn't. They're saying that I didn't re-sign it or something," Weigel said.
When Sanders asked Weigel how he planned to pay off the medical debt, Weigel answered,
"I can't, I can't. I'm going to kill myself."
Sanders stopped him there.
"Hold it, John. Stop it. You're not going to kill yourself."
Sanders offered to chat with Weigel after the meeting, and — according to the Washington Post — he did.
Sanders is the leading proponent of "Medicare for All" and has worked to change the current health care system in the United States.
"Some in Washington say I am too angry about our broken health care system," Sanders tweeted after he met Weigel. "I hear stories like this every day in America. My question is: why aren't they angry about it?"
"I saved lives. I was a Navy corpsman," Weigel told Sanders during the town hall. "We take care of our own except now. My Tricare is not acceptable anymore, they took it away."
Sanders told CNN on Saturday that his team had already begun the process of helping Weigel get the support he needs.
"We have already been in contact with one of the Nevada senators," Sanders said. "We're going to get in touch with the entire Nevada Congressional delegation to get him the help that he needs."
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