See the Connections

This is my first simultaneous post on the blog and Facebook.  To me, it’s that important.

In the county in which we live (and there isn't enough room here to go into the difference between cities and counties in Va, but it is quite interesting I assure you) at this point records 13,976 confirmed or probable Covid cases and 503 deaths, in a population of a bit over 1 million.  More than half the deaths occurred in nursing homes.  Among other things, it was discovered that a nurse's aid who worked in three different homes tested positive, bringing exposure just herself to three different facilities.  How did this happen?  As a nurse's aid, the person could only secure 20-hour/week jobs.  Why?  Because if she worked more hours the employer would have to give her a medical insurance benefit.  To cut costs, employers limit hours.  To make ends meet, she had to work three 20 hour/week jobs.  In other words, our so-called health insurance "system," was actually responsible for spreading the disease, accounting for an unknown number of the 250+ deaths in nursing homes in our county.  Nor is this person's case rare.  Low-end healthcare workers, whose work is indispensable, are miserably paid to begin with.  Add on top of that our bizarre tying of health insurance to employment, and the ability of employers to deliberately and callously abuse loopholes in the regulations, and you get not only a bloated, overpriced, and inefficient healthcare system, you get one that is actually a danger to public health.  Want to stop needless deaths in nursing homes?  Then support fair wages and universal health coverage.  It's all connected.