Hotel Worker: Crisis ​“Upended My Life”

I'm sorry to read about your situation and hope the Omni covers your insurance premium. Remember, the federal government is helping citizens, too:

You should be receiving an extra $600 a week of federal unemployment benefits (through July 31) in addition to your current CT unemployment benefits. That's $2400 monthly — on top of your CT unemployment. You can learn more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/03/27/your-guide-to-the-federal-stimulus-package/#449a84a2711e
and here: https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2020/04-2020/Governor-Lamont-Announces-System-That-Will-Significantly-Speed-up-Unemployment-Claims

Separately, you should also receive the stimulus one-time payment of $1200 per adult (earning $75k or less) plus $500 per child — tax free. You can track this payment on the IRS website here: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment

With systems overloaded, antiquated, and slow, I hope that a friend or the union or the Omni will help you pay the $150 premium next week, and that this federal money arrives it will help you get through this difficult period.

(PS. My understanding of the business side of the stimulus package is that the business must retain 90% of employment levels as of March 24 through September 30 on payroll to qualify.) https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/stimulus-package-details-coronavirus/index.html

There are a lot of stories like this which should lead to a discussion about Medicare for all.

If the author's share of insurance is only $150 a month. Omni is already paying something like 90% or more of her health insurance premiums. Family policies run in the neighborhood of $25,000 per year, and she is paying only $1800. Also, her unemployment insurance should come with a $600/week federal kicker, in addition to the normal benefit.

Jane: My federal payment came through Wednesday via direct deposit.

I feel for you, I really do. This situation we are in is not your fault, it's no one's fault. The Omni should cover your insurance no matter what, and have you collect unemployment. It's the right thing to do.

This pandemic is making the strongest argument for universal government single payer health insurance for all. Health insurance should not be tied to an employer, both for the employee's sake, but also for the employer's sake. Universal government health insurance should include vision, dental, mental health, addiction services, medicine, physical therapy, and all other services necessary to keep us physically and mentally healthy. In every other industrialized country in the world has universal healthcare though their government. And almost all other countries pay way less for medicine. It's way past time to make this change and take the profit prioritizing focused pharmaceutical and insurance companies out of it.

Medicare for All may be a slogan in the United States, but getting quality healthcare in most industrialized countries is part of their lives. They don't even have to think about payments when they need care.
Ask any Canadian. Call the doctor. Make an appointment. Go to the doctor. Show medical card. Get treatment. Walk out. That's it.

The bigger picture is that these kinds of systems can institute national healthcare programs like mandatory exercise programs for grade school kids to prevent obesity.

I know. I lived in France for many years and even as a non-citizen, I got the healthcare I needed with almost no cost at all. And, it was shocking at how little it cost at the pharmacy for the meds I needed.

Why? Because the government "employs" the medical caregivers and the pharmaceutical companies.
They buy in bulk on lots of things and that's why they can sell it more cheaply.

When I moved back to the States and talked about this...the response I got from some people was, "Well, if it is so good there, why don't you move back?".

Hello folks. You know that bumpersticker "We Are #1" - #1 in what? The number of people going without healthcare? Great! Get over it, we are not #1 when it comes to healthcare systems.

Our healthcare system needs to be nationalized like those in Canada, France, England, Ireland, Russia, Cuba and on and on.

And, once it is nationalized, we need to pay healthcare workers top salaries instead of the money going to the CEO's of the "non-profit" hospitals, the CEO's of the pharmacy and insurance companies.

Why should healthcare be a business where the rich get all that they need, and the poor have to worry as does the Mother in this story. She should not have to do that!

This doesn't have to be this way, and once the American public rejects the profit generated healthcare system in the United States, then we will have free (paid for by our taxes), healthcare.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. F.D.

It is unconscionable that this mother has to worry about paying $1000 a month for the medicine her son needs. Begging for healthcare is demeaning - this is HEALTHCARE - it is not asking for a freebee or a handout.

This is criminal in a system where CEO's of pharmaceutical company's salaries are off the charts.

"Americans spend more on prescription drugs — average costs are about $1,200 per person per year — than anyone else in the world. But what really sets the U.S. apart from most other countries is high prices. Cancer drugs in the U.S. routinely cost $10,000 a month. Even prices for old drugs have spiked, as companies have bought up medicines that face no competition and boosted charges. While private insurers and government programs pick up the biggest share of the bill, high drug costs are ultimately passed on to the public through premiums and taxes."

Top spenders for prescription drugs per year: US, $1200; Germany (in U.S. $) 800; Swedan (in U.S. $) 600;
Canadians (in U.S. $) 650.

But, let's remember that the residents of these countries, except the U.S., sometimes pay a minimal cost for an office visit, or a specialist and sometimes dental and eye care, although I found these costs in France much less than in the U.S. Yes, those of us who can afford adequate insurance, pay less, but that is not the point.

The point is that no one should pay out-of-pocket for healthcare. No one. Period.

Thank you Bernie Sanders. And, Biden - stay alive!

wesunidad: Our healthcare workers are better paid than those in Canada or the UK. Why do you think Detroit's hospitals are staffed by Canadian nurses? They can earn more in the US than in Canada. In general, Canadian and UK doctors live a healthy, middle class lifestyle, but they are not rich like US doctors who do procedures.

posted by: 1644 on April 18, 2020 9:14am

1644...You are correct.

How many millions of nurses working in Detroit come from Canada? I missed that. There are probably auto mechanics, and folks from other professions who do the same. So?

All nurses should be well paid for what they do...very well paid.

Our system may have well-paid nurses, but there are 4 million Americans that they can't help - people in the United States who do not have ANY healthcare at all.

If that's all that can be said about the Canadian system of healthcare, that some come to Detroit to be paid higher wages, what's not to like about the Canadian system when everyone is entitled to healthcare?

My guess is that if you talk to a few Canadians - or British people - they will complain about their health service. At least that's what I got from the French and the British people when I got healthcare in those countries. And, trust me, that's what you get in the U.S. media. Look over there in Canada - they have healthcare for all and wow, they have to wait for surgery or whatever.

Can't something like that be improved? Yes! Put more $$$ into the system. Even so, isn't it better than going without health care of going broke to get it as Americans sometimes do?

Do Canadians have a RIGHT to complain? Yes, because they have a stake in it - they pay for it.

Any system can always be improved and if we ever get Medicare for All, you can bet that we'll have people that complain.

Not all national systems cover everything like eyeglasses, dental, etc. I found in the French system that you had to go to specialists for these kinds of things, but don't know that much about their benefits today. It was a good experience for me to experience a national healthcare system nonetheless.

I know how much we have always needed this.

Having been cared for in the British system, I can tell you that the capitalist forces there are working all the time to "privatize" the National Health Service.

wesunidad: I was simply responding to your assertion that our healthcare workers should be paid more. The entire population of Detroit is less than a million, so, no, millions of Canadian nurses don't cross over to Detroit, only thousands. Lots of my extended family works in healthcare in Canada, the US, and the UK, and I also have connections in Korea (although no family currently working there). Healthcare workers here generally work harder but make more. Few Canadian doctors own Ferraris, but I know several here who do. Heck, my periodontist commutes in his from Old Lyme to Westville.
Especially here in CT, our Medicaid benefits are extremely generous for patients, better than many private insurance policies. My guess is most of the uninsured are here illegally. Those countries with generous social insurance systems control immigration far more effectively than we do. Canada does not have millions of illegal residents.

This is going on around the country with all workers.

First, the coronavirus pandemic took their jobs. Then, it wiped out their health insurance.

Gary Easley lost his job as a hotel chef and then lost his health benefits. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Gary Easley was worried as he took a bus to the pharmacy at West Virginia Health Right, a free clinic that has stood for decades in Charleston, W.Va. Normally, he goes to Walgreens and Kroger to get the nine prescriptions he relies on for his high blood pressure and high cholesterol, diabetes and mood swings, leg pain and lung trouble.But three weeks before — on March 17, the day West Virginia would become the last state to confirm its first coronavirus case — Easley was summoned to the general manager's office at the Four Points by Sheraton at 9:30 a.m. His job of five years as the hotel's morning-shift chef, he was told, was ending in a half-hour. His health benefits ended two weeks later.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/first-the-coronavirus-pandemic-took-their-jobs-then-it-wiped-out-their-health-insurance/2020/04/18/1c2cb5bc-7d7c-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_virusuninsured845pm:homepage/story-ans

And as far as the Canadian Health Care System.I have friends and Family who live in Canada and love the Canadian Health Care System.In fact they told me they are sick of the Charter Bus coming from Buffalo and Syracuse New York buying up all of the Canadian Pharmacy Drugs and leaving the Canadian people short.They told me they are buying up the insulin.

Caravan of Americans battling diabetes heads to Canada for affordable insulin

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/insulin-caravan-battling-high-drug-prices-in-the-us-diabetes/

Part One

Part Two.

5 Myths About Canadian Health Care

The truth may surprise you about international health care

Myth #1: Canadians are flocking to the United States to get medical care.

How many times have you heard that Canadians, frustrated by long wait times and rationing where they live, come to the United States for medical care? The most comprehensive study I've seen on this topic — it employed three different methodologies, all with solid rationales behind them.The authors of the study started by surveying 136 ambulatory care facilities near the U.S.-Canada border in Michigan, New York and Washington. It makes sense that Canadians crossing the border for care would favor places close by, right? It turns out, however, that about 80 percent of such facilities saw, on average, fewer than one Canadian per month; about 40 percent had seen none in the preceding year.


Myth #2: Doctors in Canada are flocking to the United States to practice.

Myth #3: Canada rations health care; that's why hip replacements and cataract surgeries happen faster in the United States.

Myth #4: Canada has long wait times because it has a single-payer system.

Myth #5: Canada rations health care; the United States doesn't.

This one's a little bit tricky. The truth is, Canada may "ration" by making people wait for some things, but here in the United States we also "ration" — by cost.
Feel free to read the rest.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/the_covid-19_crisis_has_upended_my_life/

My bad.Talk about waiting to see a doctor.Call Yale or Any neurology doctor and I bet you it will take you three months.And you know why it will take you Three Months.Yale has brought a lot up doctors private practices.They just brought three of my doctors.

@ Threefifths...interesting date you present there.

When was he last time YOU used the Canadian system?

When was the last time, you talked to over 20 people about their experiences in that system asking them about their experience?

How many millions in Canada are not covered that system at all?

In the U.S. on Medicare, you get one wellness visit a year! And, during that time the doctor is restricted from doing certain things. I have to schedule my annual exam one year in advance. But, I have Medicare, so at least I get that. Luck!

Let's add to that the operation "flavor" of the day...orthopedics. MD students come to Yale to become orthopedic doctors because that's where the money is. Two years ago, out of 350 students Yale graduated ONE became a pediatrician. Why? Because orthopedics pays more. Doing knees, hips, etc., that's the money maker. Not taking care of kids.

To say that the Canadian system is "less" than OUR wonderful system the one that leaves out 4 million people is laughable.

What people buy into is the U.S. corporate propaganda bullshit that points it's finger over there and over there and other there...look at how awful their systems is, ours is better (for the rich).

We're #1.

Aside from that, who says we have to have a replica of the CANADIAN system? Or the French system?
Or the Cuban system?

Are there problems in every national healthcare system? Yes, so what?

Can these problems be fixed? YES!

And, frankly for a U.S. citizen to criticize the healthcare in another country when in fact we don't even have a national healthcare system is ridiculous.

Until we have a national healthcare system available to all, we had better shut up because we have next to nothing.

Four million plus in our system have a very long wait for care? Why? Because they don't have any coverage.

Others who have to pay for healthcare insurance in our system have long waits because they can't afford the ridiculous monthly cost of their plan.

posted by: wesunidad on April 19, 2020 5:10pm

@ Threefifths…interesting date you present there.

When was he last time YOU used the Canadian system?

When was the last time, you talked to over 20 people about their experiences in that system asking them about their experience?


I have family who have been living in Canada since 1967.My peeps that are Black Canadians.Most Black Canadians are from the Caribbean. Black Canadians who are from the Caribbean live in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia.Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver,So yes I have talked to over 20 people about their experiences in that system.Like I said I was told that they are sick of the Charter Bus coming from Buffalo and Syracuse New York buying up all of the Canadian Pharmacy Drugs and leaving the Canadian people short.They told me they are buying up the insulin.Look at the co pays you have to pay out under the system here in the USA.I just had a Pet Scan.My Co Pay was 560.00 big one's.

And, frankly for a U.S. citizen to criticize the healthcare in another country when in fact we don't even have a national healthcare system is ridiculous.

Can you show me where I criticize the healthcare in another country?

And last speaking of other countries.My sister in New York has been in real estate since1974.She finds Housing for UN employees and their families from other countries Some of them are diplomats.So some time they have my sister over for lunch or Dinner and I tag along.So I get to talk to these diplomats and UN employees about there countries.I learn a lot from them.And they tell me.They love there healthcare system.

1644 you said, "

"The university is required to keep workers on." Is that because of the Unios's contracts?

"It could have laid many off." Yes, they could have laid many off, but those workers have the right to be paid under DOL law or through their union contract's. What are the provisions in the Union's contracts about layoffs? Can you quote the language in the contracts about the provisions around layoffs? They are not expected sit home, starve and go bankrupt.

"Instead, most are receiving full salary and benefits will sitting at home not working for weeks."

That's a good thing! That means they can pay their rents, make car payments, take care of their health, take care of their kids, etc. What is wrong with getting a full salary? Hello?

And, they should be sitting at home because staying home is a National Emergency and our Governor and Mayor have mandated that to stop the spread of the virus - that people should STAY HOME!!!

A person can collect unemployment if the work is gone because of something that was not their FAULT. In fact, check out the DOL website to see about benefits people can now receive if they are laid off because of the virus. I know people who are now collecting unemployment because their businesses and workplaces closed due to the virus. What are they supposed to do if their workplace is locked and the virus is not something they caused?

If Yale workers are home because Yale closed it is not their fault and they can collect either through their union contracts or through the DOL State provided benefits. Yes it is good treatment because they have UNION CONTRACTS THAT THEY FOUGHT FOR AND THAT PROTECT THEM!

Hello? The University is not a PERSON with human traits and characteristics. It is an educational and financial entity.

Yale has to abide by the Union's contracts and after having worked at Yale for many years, I know that Yale is not NICE, IT DOES NOT TREAT PEOPLE WELL.

YALE is not a human being! Thankfully!

wes: You are replying on the wrong thread. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I wrote "The University is required ..", because I do not know. A family member who works for the University is sitting at home doing nothing getting full pay and benefits. Yes, that is good for her, but I do not think the university is required under the union contract to pay her to sit at home. If you know differently, say so. I also know that in the past the university has laid people off, so I presume it could now, too.
This pandemic is not the workers' fault, but neither is it the fault of Yale University or Omni, or any other employer, so I don't see why employers should be required to pay people for nothing. It's nice when they do, but I think those that do should be lauded. Of course, like everyone else, they would be entitled to DoL unemployment benefits. As Jane points out, those benefits are pretty good.
As for the University not treating its employees well, well, that is a subjective judgment. If the university is such a bad employer, why do so many want to work for it? Why not work for someone else, either in this area or in an area where the economy is doing well (most of the country outside of CT until this pandemic)? Why do you sit and complain, rather than get on your bike and look for a better situation?

1644 - Thank you for your remarks, I appreciate the feedback. In reply, I asked YOU what was in the Local 34 and Local 35 contracts regarding layoffs because I said I did not know.

"A family member who works for the University is sitting at home doing nothing."...so? That person should go on welfare and then WE pay? Workers who have these kinds of benefits usually get them through their UNION contracts and they had to FIGHT for them...they are not a gift from the power structure.

"I do not think the university is required under the union contract to pay her to sit at home." Well, ask her!

Yes, the University can lay off people under the terms of the Union contracts, and I don't know what those terms are. That's not unusual. The workers who do get laid off, last I knew, went into a "pool" where they had first dibs on jobs that became open before people form the outside got those jobs.

You said, "This pandemic is not the workers' fault, but neither is it the fault of Yale University or Omni, or any other employer, so I don't see why employers should be required to pay people for nothing."

Yale is bound by the terms of the UNION"S contract.

The workers are not doing nothing. They are staying at home and stopping the spread of the virus.

Thanks I worked for over a decade for Yale and under a union contract that I fought for. People work at Yale because it's there and has jobs. Do I really have to state the obvious here?

"You said, why do you sit and complain, rather than get on your bike and look for a better situation?

My reply is, "Well, why did MLK complain? Why didn't he get on his bike and look for a better situation?

Like everyone else in the U.S. I have a right to complain about injustices because I am a defender of the working class, the poor and others treated unjustly.

I was raised to believe that It is my obligation as a citizen to fight for those who are treated unjustly by the ruling class.