Last August, Nigel Haskett was working at a McDonalds in Little Rock when a man walked in and began beating a female customer. Haskett stepped in to defend her. The man shot him. Now Haskett has several hundred thousand dollars in medical bills, and the McDonalds insurance company refuses to pay. Why? Because his gunshot wounds "did not arise out of, or within the course and scope of his employment."
Maybe I've been living inside the Beltway too long, but the first thing I thought when I read this story is: this is political gold. It's a gripping, outrageous, easy-to-understand story that perfectly demonstrates one of the massive flaws in our health care system. What makes the story better is that the owner of the McDonalds is offering to pay -- which shows that small business owners often get hurt by the system just as employees do. When Obama unveils his health care plan, he'd be crazy not to have Nigel Haskett on hand.
--Jonathan Chait