this is Susan she's a breast cancer
survivor and has asthma until recently
she was a bartender at this New York
City theater then the Karuna virus
arrived in the United States
everything's changed I lost my job I
lost my health insurance
that's because Susan's health insurance
was linked to her job half of the
country relies on this kind of insurance
that's sponsored by an employer and as
US unemployment figures climbed to
historic high because of the pandemic
millions like Susan are also losing
their health coverage taking people
already facing losing their job already
facing the disaster of losing their
health and potential or their life and
facing a third disaster now they have no
way to pay for it so how did we get here
to a system that relies heavily on
employment for access to health care
it's actually a historical accident
before the 20th century there wasn't
much need for health insurance because
well there wasn't much health care to
buy health care was virtually
unregulated and health insurance
non-existent physicians practiced and
treated patients in their homes and the
few hospitals that existed provided
minimal therapeutic care
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with millions of workers going off to
fight in World War two the u.s. faced a
severe labor shortage in the 1940s so
businesses wanted to raise wages to
attract labor but economists had one big
concern the federal government was
trying to prevent wages and prices from
inflating and going through the roof so
they told employers that they were wait
and price controls and President
Franklin Roosevelt signed executive
order 9250 establishing the office of
economic stabilization if you needed
more workers for your factory because of
defense production let's say the only
thing you could do is offer more
benefits he had to offer them something
like health insurance as an extra perk
so that's what companies did when the
government ruled in 1943 that insurance
paid by an employer was not taxable it
became even more favorable among workers
after the war it continued to be really
popular because there were a bunch of be
Wed no health insurance and then if you
got a job and you know your employer
will pay your health insurance by 1950
more than 70 million Americans had
employer sponsored health insurance
today it's more than 156 million
including the spouses and children of
some workers which means that the health
coverage of entire families is at risk
when workers get axed bad things start
to happen to people who can't pay their
medical bills they can in a bankruptcy
they can get their wages garnished they
can get a lien against their home so
what are their options do Americans have
u.s. does not have a national health
insurance system we have a patchwork of
different types of insurance policies
and that includes in corn-based then we
have public sources of coverage public
sources of coverage are based on
eligibility that can come in the form of
Medicaid for children and low-income
families or Medicare for people older
than 65 if you don't meet either of
these requirements have no insurance
through an employer and can't afford
your own insurance while you're out of
luck like Susan and millions of
working-class
it's a scary thing because I'm at high
risk for having a recurring case of
cancer the fact that my follow-up
appointments for my cancer treatment are
now potentially gone because I don't
have a job is insane it doesn't make
sense
I didn't sure people have a lot of
trouble getting medical care in the
United States the system is organized
around a business model it's if you
don't have any money to pay it's very
hard to get a doctor to see you
President Barack Obama tried to close
that gap in 2010 with the Affordable
Care Act it actually did lower the
percentage of uninsured people in the
United States but that number is going
up again which is not very reassuring
during a pandemic we're only getting
tested for koban 19 is free what
treatment for the virus isn't going
forward into this world where we're
surrounded by viruses and you don't have
insurance and you don't have money you
don't have health care it's life or
death just cliche but just very true