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For many Americans, health coverage is tied to a job -- and now they have neither - YouTube
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JUDY WOODRUFF: The tidal wave of pandemic-related
unemployment will reverberate in many different
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ways throughout the country for months, quite
possibly years, to come.
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One way: As millions lose their jobs, they
also lose their health care coverage. And
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for so many, there are no easy prospects of
getting affordable insurance.
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The connection between employment and health
insurance is the focus of Paul Solman's report
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tonight. It's part of our regular series,
Making Sense.
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CONNIE BOYD, Laid-Off Airport Worker: Trust
in Jehovah and do what is good.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Connie Boyd is trying hard to
keep the faith since losing her job at an
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airport kiosk.
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CONNIE BOYD: If I no longer have a job, then
that means no longer health insurance for
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me. And with my illness, I have to have -- it's
very important that I have health insurance,
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because I have Crohn's disease.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Millions of Americans no longer
have a job or health insurance.
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Waitress Amanda Dawson lost both.
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AMANDA DAWSON, Laid-Off Server: When I contacted
my health insurance provider to see if they
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could work something out on my premium, they
said no.
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NARRATOR: With health insurance from Oscar,
you can talk to a doctor anywhere, any time
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for free.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Dawson had her own policy through
the insurer Oscar. She had to let it lapse.
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But half of us have employer-provided coverage,
like cook Emma Rittner, who lost her job in
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March.
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EMMA RITTNER, Laid-Off Cook: As of today,
I don't have any insurance. And even though
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I'm on unemployment, the additional $600 a
week puts everyone on unemployment over the
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cap for Medicaid.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Uninsured, unable to afford treatment
for a tooth infection that keeps flaring up.
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EMMA RITTNER: I did manage to get antibiotics
from a friend whose mom regularly goes down
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to Mexico to get medication for their parents.
And I have been taking that, self-medicating
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, based off of Dr. Google's advice of every
eight hours. And I will be continuing that
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for 10 to 14 days.
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PAUL SOLMAN: But when you get laid off, don't
you get COBRA, that is, bridging insurance
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for some period of time?
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EMMA RITTNER: For me, I can't afford $560
a month for coverage continuing through COBRA.
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TIM MADDOX, Laid-Off Airport Worker: My biggest
concern is my wife and my newborn baby.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Tim Maddox lost his job as a
United Airlines subcontractor last Thursday.
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The next day, his son was born via emergency
C-section. He's fighting to keep insurance
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through the end of May.
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TIM MADDOX: So, this has caused a lot of stress
and anxiety, when you think about you have
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a newborn. And now it's going to throw me
into turmoil as to how we're going to provide
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medical services going forward.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Then there's the Pletch family.
Mom Sheri was abruptly laid off from her auto
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sales job in April. Her insurance?
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SHERI PLETCH, Laid-Off Sales Manager: It was
terminated the day I was terminated. And I
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was told I had until midnight that night to
use any benefits.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Not enough time to stock up on
the family's meds, which cost $700 a month.
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Dad Keith gets no benefits, but he still works,
meaning the family makes too much for Medicaid
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and can't afford COBRA.
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SHERI PLETCH: So, he works for a local company
that distributes janitorial products to local
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businesses. So, they're selling hand sanitizer
and toilet paper and disinfectant to the prisons
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and to nursing homes and retirement communities.
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He is out among people where there are known
COVID cases. And so that concern for me is,
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if he were to contract it or to bring it home
to us, what we would do without health insurance.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Now, the uninsured can get a
free COVID test and their providers can be
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reimbursed for COVID care. But that still
leaves plenty of worries for substitute teacher
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Frank Johnson.
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He tried to buy a plan on the Affordable Care
Act marketplace. It was unaffordable.
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FRANK JOHNSON, Unemployed Substitute Teacher:
I think it was about 4500 a month. And this
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was the lowest rate that they had to offer.
And so here I am basically without insurance
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during pretty much a pandemic, because, of
course, our health care is still in many ways
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tied to our jobs or it's tied to a marketplace.
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ANNE CASE, Co-Author, "Deaths of Despair and
the Future of Capitalism": The pandemic is
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laying bare a lot with problems with this
system.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Princeton economist Anne Case.
Her Nobel Prize-winning husband, Angus Deaton:
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ANGUS DEATON, Co-Author, "Deaths of Despair
and the Future of Capitalism": We're really
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hurting ourselves by having a health care
system that sucks up so much money and destroys
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people's lives.
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PAUL SOLMAN: A few years ago, the couple coined
the phrase deaths of despair. It's now the
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title of a book that blames much of the economic
anguish and declining longevity of America's
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working class on the health care system.
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ANNE CASE: Eighteen percent of GDP is spent
now on health care. It's taking money from
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regular people, and it's sending it up the
income distribution to hospitals, to big pharma,
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to device manufacturers, and to some subset
of doctors.
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ANGUS DEATON: Some of the big hospitals in
New York or Philadelphia with chief executives
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who are doctors, but are now paid $5 million
or $10 million a year. Pharma executives get
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paid huge sums of money.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Pharma floods TV with ads. Lots
of insurers means armies of billers and payment
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deniers. And since health costs are so pricey,
employers have a disincentive to provide it,
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especially to low-wage workers.
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ANGUS DEATON: So, if that worker is worth
$30,000 to the firm, and the firm has to pay
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$10,000 or $20,000 for a single or a family
policy, that becomes sort of unsustainable.
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And so either wages have to go down, which
happens, or they shut the job altogether and
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decide they can do without, and maybe they
can hire in workers from the (INAUDIBLE) cleaning
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company or something, so that they don't have
to hire their own janitors.
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All of those are outsourced. And the people
are left working for firms where there are
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no benefits, where there are dead-end jobs,
simply because of this enormous cost of health
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care.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Case in point, asthmatic Robert
Laurence, whose low-paying gigs have never
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come with benefits.
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ROBERT LAURENCE, Unemployed Gig Worker: I
was a trash collector. I was -- they call
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them brand ambassadors. I worked at a call
center.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Health insurance is a luxury
simply he can't afford.
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ROBERT LAURENCE: You kind of have a choice.
You know, do I pay my car payment or do I
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get my inhaler?
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PAUL SOLMAN: But aren't you worried, even
though you're obviously quite young, there's
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a pandemic out there, something really bad
could happen to you, and you have no coverage?
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ROBERT LAURENCE: I'm very worried about it.
It's just that I don't have the money to really
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buy into that system. And, hopefully, I can
get a better position. But, you know, the
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future is kind of looking bleak.
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PAUL SOLMAN: And the economics of COVID-19
could make things bleak for years to come.
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ANNE CASE: It's possible that many, many,
many people will get tens of thousands of
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dollars' worth of medical bills that they
cannot pay.
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PAUL SOLMAN: Frank Johnson hopes he isn't
one of them.
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So what happens if you get sick?
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FRANK JOHNSON: I'm just praying that I don't
get sick. And just hopefully, you know, not,
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nothing happens and nobody around me gets
infected.
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PAUL SOLMAN: For the "PBS NewsHour," Paul
Solman.
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