Why Long COVID Shows We Need Medicare for All More Than Ever
Our nation’s leaders continue to ignore the real crises facing everyday Americans. Mentioning Medicare for All seems as taboo as discussing renewing pandemic restrictions. The problem still exists, people are still going bankrupt and dying, but the folks in charge have washed their hands of both, much like Pontius Pilate.
Folks with long COVID don’t have the luxury of sticking their heads in the sand. They’re now experiencing the reality of long-term illness in America, along with the combined side effects — desperately needing costly medical care while losing income due to illness. They need the United States to get on board with every other wealthy nation by guaranteeing healthcare as a right. Long COVID shows we need Medicare for All more than ever.
When You Get Sick, Your Income Goes Down and Your Bills Go Up
Long COVID interferes with your working ability. Symptoms vary from individual to individual, but debilitating brain fog, fatigue, and muscle aches make many feel like they have the flu all the time. Others experience rarer symptoms like night sweats, depression, digestive problems, and hair loss. While many patients say that these symptoms abate a few months after infection, others have continuing issues more than a year later.
Many people find themselves suddenly battling a dynamic disability. Some days, they can manage their daily tasks. Others, they get knocked on their back, taking to bed as their only option.
As someone with such a disability myself, I know firsthand how it interferes with your career. The United States is notorious for not requiring paid leave, and many workers don’t have any. A sick day means losing wages, something those already living paycheck to paycheck can’t afford.
Even those with PTO can find themselves blowing through it when long COVID strikes. The problem compounds if they have other family members with the condition. Women, especially those with young children, already bore most of the pandemic’s brunt and still could find themselves fighting twice as hard to return to normal if both they and their littles develop long COVID.
Missed work means short paychecks. Worse, ongoing illness can cause employers to lose patience with absenteeism, landing workers in the unemployment line. Despite the Great Resignation, starting over can mean losing needed pay and benefits, especially when you didn’t leave your last job voluntarily.
Over half of all Americans simply can’t afford to lose so much as a few hours’ of wages, not if they hope to pay their rising rents. Medicare for All helps ease income inequality by freeing people living paycheck-to-paycheck from the burden of soaring monthly premiums and onerous copays.
It also eliminates a serious cause of stress — worries of job loss leaving them without healthcare coverage. Stress exacerbates the symptoms of just about every illness known to humankind. Excess cortisol production suppresses immune function, making people susceptible to flares and more prone to getting sick from any germs they encounter. Knowing they could go to the doctor regardless of where they work would be a godsend for millions, not only the currently uninsured.
Extending coverage to all is a must as our changing economy recovers. More than a third of the workforce now labors in the gig economy, meaning the IRS classifies them as independent contractors ineligible for benefits like health insurance and worker’s compensation. They’re essentially entrepreneurs, albeit often involuntary ones.
They have no safety net other than their labor. As long COVID restricts how many hours they can realistically work each week, many will sacrifice their health coverage to keep a roof over their heads, depriving them of medical treatment when they need it the most.
Disability Is Not the Answer
Some sweet summer children suggest that an adequate social safety net already exists. Those who can’t work enough to keep a roof over their heads thanks to long COVID can simply go on disability.
Let me tell you from experience. Going on disability is a lot like walking into Mordor. One does not “simply” do it.
My own battle took over six years. During that time, I had to sell myself into the sex trade to survive, suffered an assault, and now carry the scars. While I’m grateful to finally get the help I need to live, it was a brutal road. I nearly died. Do not recommend.
People who are already living paycheck to paycheck don’t have the resources to wait months, sometimes years, for a hearing. Many of them will find themselves on the street within a month without an income, unable to pay rent.
What can they do? Very little except struggle to survive, day after increasingly bleak day, dragging themselves to work, watching their performance drop as illness saps their productivity, suffering the consequences of homelessness and despair if they can’t keep up.
We Shouldn’t Abandon the Ones Who Kept America Going
The ultimate tragedy? Many of those afflicted with long COVID are the very individuals we all relied on to keep America going through the pandemic. The truckers who got what they could to store shelves. The stockers who showed up among maskless, spitting customers to fill them. The checkout clerks who bagged goods while patiently reminding people twenty million times a day that two feet are not six. The Dashers who brought food to more privileged folks who could afford to stay safely behind closed doors.
Many of these workers fall into the growing ranks of uninsured Americans. Passing Medicare for All is a much more meaningful way to say “thank you” to those who carried us through this crisis than all the “heroes work here” signs in the world. Is it too much to ask to let the people who carried us through the darkest days we’ve seen as a nation of late see a doctor?
The vast majority of Americans favor Medicare for All. It’s no secret that folks aren’t too happy with the current administration. If Democrats wanted to do something meaningful to prevent a midterm bloodbath, passing this much-needed and popular policy gives them that opportunity.
Surely folks like Sinema and Manchin care as much about the future of the party as all of us folks receiving dire DNC emails requesting cash to “save our democracy or else.” If so, they should sit down, shut up and step in line, unless they want to single-handedly accept responsibility for the rise and fall of the American Empire.
If I sound a bit angry, it’s because I am. There is no good reason for the United States to still be the only major country that doesn’t guarantee healthcare as a right. Our own Congressional Budget Office shows how this plan will save billions over our current for-profit model. We’re letting Americans suffer and die every day to placate a handful of fat-cat insurance companies and Big Pharma CEOs. Yes. That greed raises my ire.
Long COVID Shows We Need Medicare for All More Than Ever
Few things in life bring more suffering than desperately needing medical care — and lacking the ability to pay for it. The reality of long COVID means that many Americans who now have this condition will struggle with decreased income and increased healthcare costs right when they need medical care the most.
Many of the folks affected carried America through the pandemic. Isn’t it our solemn duty as a nation to repay them for their service, especially when doing so saves money and brings us into the big boys and girls club with all the other nations that already have healthcare for every citizen? Long COVID shows we need Medicare for All more than ever.
