No Income. Major Medical Bills. What Life Is Like for Millions of Americans Facing Financial Ruin

[Newest Reality]

No Income. Major Medical Bills. What Life Is Like for Millions of Americans Facing Financial Ruin Because of the Pandemic

On the same day that Elon Musk, the famously eccentric CEO of the electric-car company Tesla, saw his net worth hit $36.6 billion, Maricela Betancourt, one of the many people who work in his factories, was agonizing over her family’s bills. Betancourt, 58, had been a janitor at Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., factory until April 7, when the company told her and 129 fellow janitors to go home and not come back until social-distancing measures were lifted. She got her last paycheck on April 8 and has no idea when the next one’s coming. She owes $1,325 for an emergency–room visit in March, and is struggling to pay for rent, Internet and food. Her husband, a construction worker, also lost his job during the COVID-19 economic collapse. So did their son Daniel, 20, who is the first in their family to go to college and was helping to pay his way with a job at an arcade. The family put their stimulus funds toward Daniel’s tuition and prays something will come through before June rent is due.

Betancourt’s boss, meanwhile, might as well live in another stratosphere. While she relied on a food bank to supplement family dinner and Daniel turned to gig work for extra -income, Musk publicly mused that he’s considering selling all of his possessions because they “just weigh you down.” Tesla’s stock price rose so steeply this year (28%) that on May 1, Musk tweeted that it was too high, sending the share price tumbling 10%. It’s still more than triple what it was a year ago.

“It’s obviously a millionaire company that has enough resources to thrive,” Betancourt told me from her home in San Jose, Calif. “But as workers, we live paycheck to paycheck, and now we don’t even have that paycheck, so we don’t know what we’re going to do.” (Tesla did not reply to a request for comment.)

The growing gap between America’s rich and everyone else is hardly new. But the extra-ordinarily rapid economic collapse catalyzed by COVID-19 has made the chasm deeper and wider, with edges that keep crumbling under the feet of those crowded on the edge. Since mid-March, more than 30 million people have filed for -unemployment—more than three times as many as lost their jobs during the two-year-long Great Recession. Meanwhile, after a steep but brief dip in March, the stock market rallied. The richest and most well–connected are seeing their wealth reaccumulate, as if by magic, while middle- and working–class families drown in debt that deepens with every passing week.

https://time.com/5833008/us-unemployment-coronavirus/

[totodeinhere]

1. I'm sorry to hear of her misfortune but this raises a question.

The article says she has an emergency–room visit bill. So doesn't Elon Musk even provide health insurance to his employees that covers emergency room visits? If not that is a travesty.

[Massacure]

2. Her $1,300 bill probably is her coinsurance amount.

IE, if her insurance plan calls for an 80/20 split, the would pay $5,200 and she would pay $1,300 on a $6,500 bill.

[CountAllVotes]

3. Many insurance companies don't cover ER visits

If they do, they may have a $100+ co-payment which keeps many from going.

I wouldn't go if I had to cough up $100 for every ER visit.

Instead, the policy I have that costs a lot does but the other, less pricey ones do not.

This is a supplement to Medicare policy btw. Medicare pays for a portion only if you have part B.

Nightmare scenario IMO.

I feel sorry for anyone is this sinking ship!

[stopbush]

4. Why aren't these three family members on unemployment insurance? They could be getting

at least $2000 a week between the three of them, more if they were earning on a W2. And their benefits would be retroactive back to at least March 1.

CA is one of the states that is having few problems getting people on unemployment benefits. Full-time, part-time and contract (independent) workers are all eligible for UI in CA these days. I really don't understand what the problem is here.

BTW - I happen to be on unemployment in CA under the expanded benefits available under the CARES Act. I applied on a Tuesday, was approved that Friday and had $3600 deposited into my CA EDD account by that Sunday. Literally less than a week. As an indie contractor I am getting $167 a week from CA and an additional $600 a week from the Feds until the end of July. There is no reason that these Tesla employees should not be getting the same benefits, and quickly.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. The Greedy Oligarchs Party wants you desperate and dependent and thus controllable.

There is no 'trickle down'. It's time for a bubble up policy.

We the taxpayers have been subsidizing a parasite class for too long. It's time to stop socializing their expenses while letting them privatize profits.

[Demovictory9]

7. firms like Hallador Energy, an Indiana coal company that hired former Environmental Protection Agen

firms like Hallador Energy, an Indiana coal company that hired former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt as a lobbyist, raked in millions from the program.

[Demovictory9]

8. "On May 1, doctors found two masses in Tierney's left breast. "It's one of those dreams where you're

On May 1, doctors found two masses in Tierney’s left breast. “It’s one of those dreams where you’re screaming for help and no one can hear you,” she says.

--------------------------------------------------------

Hoping those masses are benign