Leon Lederman

The name might not be a well-known household name, but Leon Lederman won a Nobel prize in Physics back in 1988, for his work with neutrinos.  Its a widely recognized piece of work that he undertook with other physicists to revolutionize how we think about subatomic particles.  And yes, you may also realize he is the discoverer of the Higgs boson particle.

But here's the thing.  In 2012, he started suffering from dementia.  The general care for it was covered under Medicare, which is good. But, as he needed more care, like an aide, or to stay at a memory care facility, Medicare didn't cover that.  

So in 2015,  his wife sold his Nobel prize for just a little over 3/4 of a million dollars.  Because they needed the money to continue to pay for his care.

A Nobel physicist who revolutionized our understanding of the universe had Medicare, and *still* had to sell his medal to cover expenses.  

He died in 2018, and the NY Times did an obituary for him: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/science/leon-lederman-died-particle-accelerators.html

There is something so wrong with this situation, with what we have for healthcare in a first world nation, one of the wealthiest EVER.  We can't even care for our people, even the ones that contribute to our betterment.  

What is wrong with us?!