Jobs and health care

I read the radical perspectives article called ” When a Job Dissapears, so does the Health care”. It gave an overview of the unfortunate unemployment situation in the U.S and the jobless numbers ever increasing.  The main point of the article was that not only are people losing jobs but they’re losing their health benefits as well. I find this very disheartening and scary as well because I am under my moms health insurance but when I am no longer a student I won’t be. So if I don’t have a job i’ll have no health benefits. People are really going to desperate measures to get the care that should be a right to every citizen.  One example in the article was a woman who induced her labor because she needed her medical coverage to cover the delivery.

“The crisis is on display here. Starla D. Darling, 27, was pregnant when she learned that her insurance coverage was about to end. She rushed to the hospital, took a medication to induce labor and then had an emergency Caesarean section, in the hope that her Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan would pay for the delivery.”

To me that is a shame. It is a human right to be able to have your baby delivered in a safe and healthy environment.  Also the article talked about other people working at a cookie factory that abruptly lost their jobs and coverage with only three days notice. People were not even able to take the medications they needed anymore. They also had to put off medical procedures. 

The amount of people that are jobless have reached record highs. According to the article:

“About 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million, or 36 percent, since January of this year, and by 4.3 million, or 71 percent, since January 2001.”

This is a very alarming statistic and people are suffering with illnesses.  I think that there are more problems that can arise if something isn’t done and the government doesn’t start paying for peoples healthcare.  Epidemics can start and people might start spreading diseases without any medicine or treatments. I thought that America was a place that could afford to give the citizens what they need but apparently the government is failing at that task.

The article also mentions what President Obama had plans to do about this.  When the article was written he was the president elect.  It says:

“Expanding access to health insurance, with federal subsidies, was a priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the new Democratic Congress. The increase in the ranks of the uninsured, including middle-class families with strong ties to the work force, adds urgency to their efforts.”

I haven’t seen any major improvements on health care since Obama has been in office but I think this has to be put at the top of his list of things to do. Or else it could have great consequences on the U.S as a whole.

Here is a link to Obama-Bidens plan for health care if anyone was interested. I wonder how much better the plan will make things for the average family. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/