Part 2: 'Health care is a privilege, not a right'

Editor's note: This is the second of a five-part series.

When doctors at LDS Hospital saved Jim Petty's life, and then replaced a hip for his wife, Mary, the Sandy couple felt fortunate to have top-notch health care. But they wondered how long it would take to pay the bills.

When they learned their treatment — more than $750,000 worth — would be entirely paid for by the hospital, they felt blessed by God.

After years of paying the entire cost of their family's health care out of pocket, they might be expected to support government-funded health care for all. Dead wrong.

Their philosophy: "Health care is a privilege, not a right," and "rights are only given to us by God."

As owners of a small genealogy research company called Heirlines, the two had searched in vain years ago to find health insurance that would cover their family. They lost a COBRA policy they had when a traffic accident involving their daughter left them unable to pay the health premium as insurers duked it out in court, leaving them to foot the bill in the interim.

Because their children had pre-existing conditions (a broken elbow, infant asthma, a head injury), no private insurer would cover them. Their only choice was to self-insure.

Since the early 1990s, the Pettys figure they have spent 10 percent to 20 percent of their annual household income on health care. They paid out of pocket for everything from diabetes care to a miscarriage, cataract surgery, a hysterectomy, broken collar bone, broken ankle, dental, dermatology and eye care, sports injuries, illnesses and preventive care.

So in 2005, when Jim needed open heart surgery to stay alive, they figured the cost would be about $70,000, and they would pay it off over a couple of years following his recovery.

But he contracted MRSA — a deadly staph infection that circulates in hospitals — came close to death and racked up a bill several times the size of what they had planned for. As he was lying in a hospital bed, a woman representing Intermountain Healthcare came in to discuss his financial situation. "She said, 'You won't have to worry about it. We're taking care of it,' " he recalls. "They did everything they could to provide the best care they could give me. It was not their intent to cause me damage," he said.