Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?

The death of 45-year-old musician Jay Bennett, former member of the band Wilco, is “intolerably sad”—but its implications about our current health care system are also “downright scary,” writes the Cajun Boy on Gawker. Bennett, fired from Wilco in 2001, sued the band’s frontman earlier this month for $50,000 in unpaid royalties—possibly because he needed money to cover a hip replacement surgery.

On his blog last month, Bennett confessed he was bedridden, unable to move forward with the surgery because he was “among our nation’s under-insured” and would need to pay out-of-pocket. “We hate to get all political at the time of a man’s death,” writes the Cajun Boy, “but if a well-established musician/producer couldn’t afford the health care he needed, what hope does that leave for the rest of us?” (More Jay Bennett stories.)