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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is where the rubber meets the road.
So I know a guy.
His wife has worked over 30 years for an insurance company so big that they insure insurance companies. No union of course. She's having some health issues and has blown through the 12 weeks of FMLA.
In the middle of trying to get well, she had to be sure to get an approved "accommodation" to not keep her job, but her employment. She's lucky, they approved and that will keep her in medical coverage another 8 weeks. If she can't come back to work before then she'll have to carry her insurance on cobra at $887 a month. She loses her pension ..........over 30 years working there and because she won't make it to 65 this company will keep the money.
I have no idea if what will happen to her is legal. Doesn't matter. They will get away with it ......... because we let them.
This man cried in front of me today. Big burly guy. Cried buckets.
His wife is sick.
She may end up on disability.
She's in pain.
The doctors don't know what else to do.
She may lose her insurance in the middle of all this.
She's probably going to lose everything she worked a lifetime to build.
Mentally the mean corporation isn't helping her any.
They are both exhausted. Tired of fighting a messed up medical system. incompetent office staff in doctor offices and her predator company.
The money they could somehow work out if it weren't for paying for medical care.
While she and her husband cry themselves to sleep her state and federal governments don't give a flying shit.
While she and her husband cry themselves to sleep the 8 people who own the vast majority of her company's stock don't give flying shit.
None of this started because ferret head got hisself elected. It started decades ago.
Keep your eye on the ball people. Remember what matters.
BigmanPigman
(51,632 posts)I had to leave teaching a few years ago and to keep my health insurance (before the ACA so I couldn't get any...no options) I had to pay $15,000 a year for health insurance. Do you know how much teachers make? Not much and I saved every penny for over 25 years. I spent $30,000 in two years alone before the ACA. And I had to stop working since I am so sick and can't get teacher retirement since I left too early. Now I will go through the remainder of my savings to pay for my medical costs until I die in a few years. I will still need to have my 83 year old parents help pay for my surgeries instead of leaving it to me in their wills. I hope the 1% suffer in agony and broke as many other who don't deserve it will. At least I am not a hypocrite and my family has been Dems for 5 generations (all of us).
It pissed me off when I called Blue Shield today and asked if my premiums are increasing 12.5% as I had read and she said, "Yes, as far as she knows". I told her I made 55 calls the other week to help save the ACA and she laughed. I probably helped save her job too. Funny NOT!
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)In Britain, Sweden, Australia, Germany - - no one. The number one reason why people go bankrupt in the good ol' USA is due to an illness in the family. The only reason why these horror stories continue is because this hammer-headed country refuses to do what so many others have already done.
For profit medicine on a national scale is beyond immoral - it's criminal. These companies are money-making death panels, and yet . . . they persist.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,902 posts)I'm pretty sure federal law requires that an employee be vested at the five year mark. Yes, her pension will be reduced if she takes it earlier than she'd expected, or doesn't work as along as she'd planned, but it shouldn't go away entirely.
iamateacher
(1,089 posts)They may have to get a lawyer.
demigoddess
(6,645 posts)corporations will always find a loophole to prevent some of their people from getting what they need. I heard that Walmart that great humanitarian employer takes out life insurance on employees who are sick to make money off their deaths. Wonder how many companies do stuff like that.
yardwork
(61,712 posts)If she loses her employee-subsidized insurance, she needs to go to the ACA website and look at options. They are likely much cheaper than COBRA.
This is why the ACA was created.
CrispyQ
(36,527 posts)Just not crazy fucked. I want to see McConnell go down worst of all.