This morning I went to SFHP, to see if I qualified for the HealthSF program. I did not. Even though I make less than $3,000 (net or whatever it's called) and need a second job to pay for healthcare and hospital bills—they calculate it different.
Based on their strange calculations...
something about YTD and current pay stub, mixed with a surprise
number from my bank statement... they said I made almost $3,200 a
month. Huh?!! Yeah, really. And somehow my gross yearly income is
close to $40,000. I would like to see that money someday... I wonder
who took it? It certainly didn't go into my bank account, that's for
damn sure.
Here I am paying my $900 SRO rent in a
10 x 10 room, working over 40 hours a week with one employer (never
paid overtime or sick leave) and now on my second job at around 8
hours a week, with 48 hours total a week... and I'm struggling. My
healthcare with Anthem is $363... and it raises every year even with
Obamacare's mandate.
My housing and other costs: $1,160
(Rent, PG&E, mailbox, Clipper @ $81/month) and now internet at
around $50 a month...
My healthcare costs: $363 a month.
My hospital bills: $250 a month
(finally paid off this month in August, from April 2019). Unless I
get more “surprise” bills from Sutter Health, who are known to
overcharge people.
My “real” income is less than
$3,000 a month. In San Francisco, that's poverty level. Every
paycheck means I have to calculate what I spend each month. I never
get to save anything at all.
I've lost several thousand since moving
here in 2015, due to medical bills and having to help my grandparents
until they died in 2016. I sold my car ($4,000) to move to San
Francisco. I got a second job in 2018 to help pay for medical costs
and try to save some money. All that's left now? $300. That's it.
If I went on Covered CA (a known scam
if you look at the Yelp reviews), during the Open Enrollment date in
October, I won't be covered until January 2020. That's bullshit.
Considering my last debacle with
Covered CA...
in which Blue Shield never got my
payment from Covered CA and where I called the CA Health Dept. and
the woman there told me (I have a video of this!), “I wouldn't put
my own family on Covered CA!”
…
I probably won't go with Covered CA.
Right now, I'm putting my payments late
into Anthem because I literally can't afford to pay it on time
because I need to pay rent first.
Due to my employer owing me 8 hours of
work which he refuses to pay... I have even less money than I'm
supposed to.
I still haven't gotten paid from my
second job.
I would quit both jobs and go on
welfare except I know people on it already, who have to ask
permission from their Case Manager just to have an air conditioner in
their room—no, I kid you not.
Basically, Covered CA benefits people
who want to stay in poverty, have 10 kids, who are married and sponge
off their parents. I'm not that lucky. I don't have rich parents to
sponge off of. They make way less money than I do but get benefits. I
also choose not to have 10 kids and it's nobody's business if I
decide to marry.
So I guess the only answer is, be a
slave to the government or suffer if you make a little bit of money
and never be able to afford anything.
I've known people suffering in their
horrible jobs, just so they can keep their health insurance (what
tiny bit they get out of it). I believe this is called: indentured
servitude. If you look up these words in a Thesaurus and read
history, you'll realize this is very close to slavery.
I'm not sure I want to support this
broken system.
Do I give up my health insurance, save
$363 a month and hope I stay healthy for many years?
Or, do I keep the rip-off $363 a month
insurance which gives me no doctor visits, lab tests or covers any
hospital visits and allows companies like Sutter Health to overcharge
and rip-off patients, forcing them to pay more of their meager income
on bills that cost $200+ a month for a year?
Hospitals now threaten their patients
with collection agencies if they don't pay on time or have a late
payment. Even though in most states (including California) this is
supposed to be illegal, they still get away with it. Some people
manage to bargain down the hospitals, as long as they make a payment.
For others, I know medical bills are the most common reason for
bankruptcy and housing loss.
Right now, at least ten people I've
seen have had to use crowd-funding to pay for their medical expenses,
in the amount of $2,000 or more.
This country still doesn't have
healthcare for its citizens. I find that criminal. Considering how
much people suffer and lose when they don't have it—the least this
country of billionaires can do is offer the lowly citizens free and
low-cost coverage.
But that would mean less profits for
them. Billionaires are terrified of losing money, it's true. It's
their job to keep us poor. If healthcare were free, it would mean
regulating a market that has sprouted many heads of corruption...
something that billionaires are loathe to do because that is where
they make the most money (aside from war and oil).
Covered California is a broken system
that works as a middle man to support corrupt insurance companies.
Anthem wasn't even on it for a network choice, go figure. Obamacare
only lived up to the promise of putting more people on Medi-Cal. We
can do better. Employers can do better too. In San Francisco, anyone
working 40 hours a week (or more) should have some form of health
insurance, regardless of how many employees a company has.
Also, please don't look down on retail
workers, baristas or other working-class people who don't have rich
parents to sponge off of like you do. Just because we choose not to be
on welfare, doesn't mean we should be punished for it. We certainly
don't deserve your scorn. We put up with enough shit as it is.
