Joe Biden and his fellow Republicrats have vowed to protect us from Bernie Sanders and his threats to take away our beloved health insurance policies, forgetting to mention that what Sanders actually proposes is replacing them with a far superior and cheaper policy. The people who don’t support Medicare for All seem to be members of two groups: healthy people who believe that they will never get sick, and comfortably employed people whose employer takes care of the hassle of providing them with health insurance, and who seem to believe they will never lose or change jobs.
Now comes Mr. Coronavirus to demonstrate two truths: you might well get sick when you least expect it; and you might lose your job when you least expect it; and both those things could happen at the same time. About half of all Americans depend on employer-sponsored health insurance. Last week — last week — 3.3 million people filed for unemployment insurance. An historic number of people, more than ever recorded in a single week, lost their jobs, their income and their health insurance in the middle of a deadly pandemic. That was just the first bad week, with many worse weeks to come.
Even if you still have your health insurance, getting the coronavirus could break you. Not to worry, says the Tweeter in Chief, the for-profit insurance companies have generously agreed to waive co-payments for coronavirus testing and treatment. How splendid of them, that’s a big hit to take for the team. Except they didn’t. As their trade organization said almost immediately after the president’s grand announcement, “Like hell!” (I’m paraphrasing, but the sentiment was clear.) They were prepared to give people a break on the testing, but not the treatment. That would have involved real money.
So rest assured, besieged Americans, that while your business is closed, your income is gone, your children are marooned at home, your rent and car payment are coming due, even with all this there are plenty of American companies gorging themselves on profits derived from your misfortune. Thank God we don’t live in a socialist country.
Just enjoyed your interview with Mr. Walker in a different but same way as I enjoy your writings. And here’s one to share, that I saw chalked atop a stone wall in the neighborhood:
Q: What kind of jokes does the CDC recommend?
A: Inside jokes.
Yuk yuk. Thanks.
Astride the fence looking at both healthcare systems (hint, one is not), I shake my head at the foolish on one side of the fence. As Tom has distinctly pointed out, US health insurance is that mirage that keeps disappearing when you really need it.
Or as Kuntsler stipulated in his blog this morning, what is that 21 day hospital bill going to look like? It is both a deplorable and sad situation when the bill for the cure kills the patient instead. Well, …, that’s just f*%ked up.
All the cracks in the US system are coming apart under the merest of stress. While other components are showing their mettle. Hopefully we come away understanding the differences.
And, we get to see what roles and occupations are really ESSENTIAL in society. Movie stars and stock brokers ain’t it.