In November my brain is usually 100 percent dedicated to writing, if we assume that 100 percent means of my free time. And that I also eat, clean, socialize and all those other pesky tasks that keep one functional. Oh right, and work a full time job.
The job is in benefits. And while I do consider myself an expert on USian benefits, I am also a rando on the Internet. And I am not your benefits expert.
But such are things, that it seems necessary to state, people should have food. The federal government provides useful services that should be happening and in most cases right now are not. The ones that are, are not being paid, which sucks. (Not being able to work the job you were hired for and should be getting paid for also sucks.)
In the US we treat healthcare as a bonus, a buy up, a nice to have, even though not having healthcare makes people sicker.
Making healthcare an insurance proposition means one of two things. It either works like car insurance, where they make a bet based on your age, zip code and a few other factors and charge you based on that. This is how individual plans and therefore all state marketplace plans work.
The advantage of employer based plans is that employees of a certain size can offer a large population that likely has a mix of old, young, risky, and unrisky people. So they can negotiate for a rate that is better.
The more expensive healthcare gets, the more people who don't use it much drop it (to say nothing of those who can't afford it). This means the people still on it are higher users. This means the costs go up for everyone in a vicious cycle.
And some of those people who gambled or hoped they wouldn't need it will be wrong. And they will show up in emergency rooms for something that probably could have been solved sooner with access to healthcare.
Basically, all the choices this country is currently making are going to result in various combinations of death, illness, and injury. Sure, some people will be fine.
But we are treating food, paychecks, and healthcare as nice to haves, instead of the necessary things that they are.
I am sorry for everyone affected by this. Please be kind and generous to your neighbors. This struggle is going to hit everyone on multiple fronts.
