Archives for April 2018

 

Whether you’re ready to acknowledge it or not, as a whole, this country is a mean, hateful place. As a nation, we’re greedy and self-serving, and we’re oftentimes a big, fat bully. And not only to the outsiders and “illegals” (though that is a huge issue of ours in and of itself), but we’re big, mean bullies to our own, as well.

My last piece covered just a portion of the problem with the USA’s attitude – the fact that my 64 year old grandmother doesn’t have access to decent, affordable medical insurance or treatment, and was recently smacked with a big ole diabetes diagnosis. And it’s certainly not just an issue for my grandmother. It’s not just a problem for any particular demographic in this country. It’s an ever-pressing problem for everyone that’s not lucky enough to be a part of the 1%. Living in America, unless you have millions in the bank, you have to worry about being able to afford healthcare. It doesn’t just affect the “poor” percentage either. Even the blue-collar folks are paying hundreds and often thousands of dollars out of pocket in deductibles, co-pays, and insurance costs.

Other countries, such as Canada, have state-funded insurance nationwide for EVERYONE. No one in Canada has to worry about how they’ll pay to get medical treatment. Dozens and dozens of other countries around the globe are following this example. In France, Australia, Israel, Sweden, Norway, Japan… – Free healthcare for all their citizens. But not in America, boys. Never in America. Why on Earth would we want to ensure that our citizens can have access to affordable and decent medical care when we can instead hold their health over their heads like some sort of fucked up extortion? Why would we ever want to spread the costs evenly across our taxpayers with a small percentage, rather than line the pockets of every politician, insurance company, and pharmaceutical company across the nation?

Our health insurance costs us astronomically more in the U.S than other developed countries, leaving approximately 11.3% of American adults without health insurance altogether. The cost of medical treatment in the U.S is exorbitantly higher as well. The United States is currently the most expensive place on Earth to give birth – coming in at around $30,000 for an all-natural birth and upwards of $50,000 for a cesarean. And this is just a national average. Whereas the total bill in Singapore, for a non-citizen, would come in at around $10,000. If you’re a Singapore citizen, you get a $6,000 baby bonus. And Singapore isn’t even the cheapest country to give birth in, it just doesn’t take much to outdo the good ole United States of America.

With the price of treatment being so high in this country, doctors and hospitals have a tendency to do more. Because, why not? Every time they walk into your room, touch you, run a test, or prescribe a medication they’re making more money. Whether they charge that to your insurance or put it on your tab, they don’t much care. They overdo, because they can, and it makes them more money that way. It’s a sad truth when millions of American citizens are now opting to travel to other countries for any extensive medical treatment or procedures, because it’s the only way they’ll be able to afford it.

But don’t think for a moment that medical care is the only way America lines its velvet pockets. We’re slicker than that. We like to screw you over with a healthy heaping of student loan debt as well. College in America is more expensive than literally anywhere else in the world, with a bachelor’s degree averaging out to around $21,000. The same degree in New Zealand is about $4,200, and in Portugal it’s only a hair above $1,100. Now keep in mind that the good ole U S of A does not like to give much government help to anybody. So, students are usually left eating thousands and thousands of dollars in student loan debt to pay for the education that our country says they should have.

Around 44 million Americans share a total student loan debt of $1.4 trillion. As a matter of fact, the rates of education are rising even faster than inflation in the country, making an affordable education even less and less attainable. Again, we’re faced with the fact that many young adults are choosing to travel outside of our country to seek an education, simply because that’s the only way they can afford it.

Now, we know that our medical costs are increasingly rising, and our education costs are continuously going up at an exceeding rate, yet our wages… well, our wages ain’t going any damn place. Our average hourly wage has only grown around 0.2% per year since the 1970’s. Our economy has grown, our national debt has grown, and our average cost of living has increased exponentially, but our pay hasn’t gone much of anywhere. It costs us far more to live, to survive here, than it used to, but we’re not being paid enough to keep up with that. We haven’t been since somewhere around the early 70’s.

We literally can’t afford to live, even working 40 hours a week. Yet, our country deeply frowns upon any sort of government assistance, our president even going so far as trying to replace the SNAP program that helps feed literally thousands of Americans – including the elderly and children, with a box of prepackaged shit food delivered to your door every month.

And since we’re talking about the cruelty of America already, I want you to just take a moment and consider what you just read. Our president, our country, wants to take away a program that helps ensure that children don’t go to school hungry, that our elderly can still feed themselves, and instead send them a small box of nearly inedible, innutritious, bottom-of-the-barrel, Trump wouldn’t eat it if you paid him, food. That’s just how truly mean and downright fucking hateful we are as a country.

How does a nation get to a point where it doesn’t give a damn about its own people? We, the citizens, are what makes America. We ARE America. Yet our nation bullies us. Our government is stuffing us in lockers and flushing our heads in the toilet. We’ve forgotten what it means to love and care for our own. We’ve lost sight of the gratification involved in helping our fellow brother. We’re flushing the dream, and splendor, and wonder of what America is truly supposed to be down the shitter. We no longer care about anyone but ourselves. The lining of a politician’s pocket is taking precedence over making sure our veterans are housed, our elderly and sick, our weak and weary are cared for, our children our fed and educated. We’re a mean fucking country. We’re mean spirited and unaccepting to any that doesn’t belong to us, and we’re cold-hearted and hateful to our own. When our very own citizens, the very blood and heartbeat of America feels the needs to flee this country – Well, boys, we got a fucking problem.

Grab the book that will lift your spirits with laughter. 

 

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Andrea is a freelance writer based out of Kentucky. She is the mother to a 3 year old little girl and step-mother to a 6 year old boy. She’s been married to her husband and best friend for 5 years. She enjoys fishing, camping, hiking and the occasional glass of wine by a bonfire.

A lot of folks troll this page and the whole entire wide world of the internet. They comment on memes and statuses and articles written by 24 year old’s in a dimly lit, yet cheap 2 bedroom apartment. They’re generally going on and on and on and on (you’re catching my drift here) about how underemployment is a big ole crock of shit, and all of us big, bad, ugly millennials are just out here getting liberal arts degrees, aspiring to be a Bic lighter repair man, and expecting a comfy 100k a year for it. They think we should be going to trade school or going to college to get a “real” degree and a “real” job. For the sake of my word count, I’ll let you have that one this time. (Though, expect me to be coming back to that.) But, I have to wonder if any of those fine, fine folks have taken a moment to stop and think about the underemployed percentage that isn’t a millennial with a master’s degree in curtain hanging.

My grandmother is 64 years old, and she is underemployed. Severely. She’s currently a high school lunch lady. All of her life, she’s been a cook working mostly in restaurants. She went to the high school a few years ago in an attempt to make her work a little easier on her health. Summers and weekends off. The occasional week-long breaks throughout the year, and much shorter work days. She had to. After a knee replacement and heart surgery, she wasn’t left with a whole lot of other options, and simply not working wasn’t one either. But she doesn’t get paid jack shit.

My grandmother was also recently diagnosed with diabetes. She’s had it for around a year, but thanks to our crack-shit medical system in the good ole U S of A, no one told her until her kidneys got entirely bent out of shape and the doctor’s office accidentally stumbled over her sky-high glucose for a second time. But, again, another topic for another day. Now, diabetes isn’t necessarily a death sentence. People live productive lives with it every day. Even in my grandma’s case, where she’d gone undiagnosed for SO long, it still has some turnaround potential with the right diet, exercise regimen, and medication. The big problem here is, she’s terribly underemployed and her health puts her in a position where she can barely handle the job she has now, much less pursue a different, better one.

She has medical insurance through her job. She pays for it, somewhat heftily, but she has it. She’s not eligible for Medicare yet, and she makes “just a little too much” to be eligible for Medicaid. That means she won’t be receiving a drop of help from the government or anyone else to help pay for her testing supplies or her medication. That also means that, no matter how badly her health is deteriorating in front of our eyes, she has no choice but to continue to work to keep what little bit of health insurance she does have.

Now, you may say, “So what! She’s got health insurance, doesn’t she? I work 897 hours a week and I can’t afford to pay for health insurance and Obama took all of my tax refund because of it,” and so on and so forth. Some may say, “Who cares?! She only has another year until she can retire. A year isn’t that long!” And to a degree, you’re kinda right, she does have okayish health insurance right now. And, yea, she can retire in a year. But that’s a whole year, with just kinda okayish health insurance, at a severely underpaid position. I don’t know if any of you have any experience with diabetes, but it can be an extremely expensive disease to have. It requires a lot of monthly medical equipment – glucose monitors, test strips, lancets, a complete upturning of your diet, and a lot of exercise and hard work. All of which cost money.

Her insurance will cover part of the equipment she’ll need every month, but it doesn’t touch anything else. Gym memberships are not free, and the unfortunate truth in this country is, the healthy food is expensive. Sugar free snacks are 5x the price of Little Debbie’s, and the wheat bread is $4 a loaf, where the regular bread is a couple bucks. Fresh fruits and vegetable are usually astronomically higher than the high sodium, high sugar, canned ones. And her health insurance does not care about that. Which is whatever, no health insurance covers food, the issue is, she’s so underemployed that she can’t afford to either. Yet, she still makes “too much” to be eligible for food stamps or any kind of assistance. So, she’s left trying to figure out how to feed herself food that won’t contribute to killing her, while still keeping her lights on. It’s a tight rope to walk.

Then she’s left trying to determine how she’s supposed to get all of this exercise that the doctors keep recommending. Again, she’s 64, with terrible arthritis, heart issues, and she works full-time. By the time she gets home, she has about enough energy to cook herself and my grandpa some dinner before she’s down for the count. She can’t afford any of the programs or gyms that could help her exercise comfortably, because all of her money is going to medication, testing supplies, food she can eat, and keeping her bills paid. She’s left with virtually no options, because she’s drowning in underemployment. All she can do is hope that her health will allow her to work until she’s eligible to retire, and hope that the state of our country still allows her retirement to be there when she does.

There’s a problem in this country, and it is not just a dirty millennial problem. It’s an everybody problem. It’s a problem for the 24-year-old writing articles in her dimly lit 2 bedroom. It’s a problem for the 35-year-old single mother trying to support her kids on her own, and it’s a problem for my 64-year-old grandmother who’s trying to get her diabetes under control so she can squeeze as many years as she can out of this life with the ones she loves. It’s a fucking epidemic, and it’s affecting everyone. No one should ever have to worry about whether they’re paying the light bill or buying their medication this month. Especially not when they have a fucking job.

 

Support Andrea’s writing on our site by subscribing to our newsletter on this link, Subscribe here!

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Andrea is a freelance writer based out of Kentucky. She is the mother to a 3 year old little girl and step-mother to a 6 year old boy. She’s been married to her husband and best friend for 5 years. She enjoys fishing, camping, hiking and the occasional glass of wine by a bonfire.