Side effects of lockdowns due to COVID19

I've been thinking a lot about how our society and 'business as usual' is and will be changed due to the shutdowns/lockdowns. One of the most important issues is medical insurance.

How are people going to afford medical care if they have no medical insurance? Even with the ACA, you have premiums that must be paid. How can people afford these medical insurance premiums?

I know from this site and others, that many people are not getting any financial assistance from government entities and don't have the funds to last any longer living their customary lifestyle. Businesses are failing. People are losing (or soon will be) their homes, vehicles, employment, etc. So on top of all that bad, if a doctor or hospital visit is necessary which is not due to COVID19, the ensuing debt due to lack of insurance could be insane.

Many states medical assistance programs are asset based instead of or in addition to income based. If you have a home say worth a specific amount you are not eligible for state medical insurance of any degree regardless of how little money you don't make. Even if you might lose your home soon or in the near future.

Also, just a note here, in RI and SD, school employees - NOT teachers but janitors, PARAs, cooks and cook assistants etc., are not allowed to file for unemployment.....they are considered ineligible due to statutes regarding this. Other states as well possibly. So no working at the school during the summer, normally no problem. Get a temp job and return to regular school job in the fall. The school I work for states employees are not eligible for unemployment. But there are also no opportunities to gain employment elsewhere. If not eligible for regular unemployment income, one is ALSO not eligible to receive the extra $600/weekly benefit which is currently in place. So bummers all the way around.

The long lasting effects of these lockdowns could be catastrophic to millions of people.

Looking forward to responses on this issue.

It might decouple insurance and employment finally which would be a good thing that needs to happen.

What we don't need is to replace the system with a single payer. For one thing, we sure as heck cannot afford it right now and won't be able to on the diminished tax base for quite a while.

I've been considering today that a lot of places have instituted a rent moratorium until their states' States of Emergency expire which means people can defer their rent, but that doesn't mean the rent payments are forgiven. It only means they can put off paying them until a later date.

I've been wondering all day how many people really get that and are simply choosing not to pay rent even though they could and then blowing the money? How many people are going to be evicted or in deep financial trouble because they thing they really aren't responsible for that rent?

And how many others are simply going to be out of a place to live because they just won't have a job and the means to pay whether they would have been smart with their money or not?

a reply to: ketsuko

Single payer or not, the insurance industry as well is about to get ass up-ended. When it comes down to food on the table, paying utilities etc., insurance is at the bottom of the list. Vehicle, home, medical, life, disability - ALL of it.

There are many responsible people who will suffer financially. And MANY irresponsible people are buying toys, boats, pools etc. with not a care in the world while they're NOT paying their rent or car payments and such. Going so deep in debt, they can't recover. The coming bankruptcies will be astronomical.

For many who are landlords right now you can pretty much kiss your rental income goodbye while accruing liens and debt on the rental properties for unpaid bills left by the renters.

CNN Wolf Blitzer was thrilled the other day when a Johns Hopkins professor predicted that 70,000 people will die due to alcoholism and depression induced suicide, thanks to covid-19 stay-at-home orders.

originally posted by: ketsuko
It might decouple insurance and employment finally which would be a good thing that needs to happen.

Why would that be a good thing? For example right now through my employer, we pay 240 a month and that covers your whole family regardless of how many kids you have. Medical, dental, and vision. You think if that went away I would pay less for the same amount of care?

originally posted by: StoutBrouxAlso, just a note here, in RI and SD, school employees - NOT teachers but janitors, PARAs, cooks and cook assistants etc., are not allowed to file for unemployment.....they are considered ineligible due to statutes regarding this. Other states as well possibly. So no working at the school during the summer, normally no problem. Get a temp job and return to regular school job in the fall. The school I work for states employees are not eligible for unemployment. But there are also no opportunities to gain employment elsewhere. If not eligible for regular unemployment income, one is ALSO not eligible to receive the extra $600/weekly benefit which is currently in place. So bummers all the way around.

The long lasting effects of these lockdowns could be catastrophic to millions of people.

Looking forward to responses on this issue.

My wife is a school cook and is in the same position. She and a handful of others are still working two days a week until the end of the contracted school year, in our case June 9th, preparing the take home food for the free/reduced families. A week's worth of breakfast and lunch for each family member. They are not allowed to sign up for unemployment due to the state rules. The ones that aren't working because they don't feel safe or have another medical issue have to use their sick/pto days which are very few for this job, then they're on their own. This is wrong in my opinion, they didn't have a choice when the state closed all of the schools.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Everyone knows that the system we have now is messed up. If you lose your job, you insurance isn't portable for just one problem. Not every employer insurance is created equal, and Obamacare threw a monkey wrench into things by mucking it up even worse.

Your health insurance needs to be centered on you, not your employer, but the only way the market will ever become focused on that is to take it out of group plans like it sells now. Individual plans are punitively expensive if you want anything like what an employer group plan can often provide.

Trust me, I don't like the idea much either, but something needs to break the system up or we will end up mired in a single payer eventually, and I think that would ultimately wind up worse.

a reply to: carewemust
Sad numbers. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 40 in the UK.
Covid lockdown will have a detrimental effect on peoples mental health. But accidently infecting your gran because you mingled with people too soon, will have a bigger one.

a reply to: carewemust

If you off yourself because you had to stay at home away from people, you weren't exactly on stable footing to begin with., something else would have pushed you over the edge at some point.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Healthcare would be far cheaper if they cured the problem instead of treating symptoms. The hindrance of care in this country is coupled with the morality of what we can and cannot do to a human body for some thinly walled ideas of ethics.

This gets in the way of true progress and treatment. Take money out of the healthcare system and make it more in lined with curing disease and conditions rather than treating the symptoms. Think, Star Trek. Thats whats needed. And we likely have the technology available to make progress by leaps and bounds, but the system keeps us from moving forward.

Maybe eugenics isn't a bad thing.

a reply to: HalWesten

I can't complain there. We also did breakfast and lunch for 187 children (not all of them were students) for 5 days each week. My last day was today which is the normal end of the school term where I am working. We actually worked Sunday, Monday and Wednesday to have meals prepared and delivered in two segments. Monday they received Monday and Tuesday meals. Wednesday they received Wed., Th, Fri meals. We all get paid for our full time positions whether we worked or not during the Covid19 shutdown. But many worked, especially the non teachers, on the meals. But PARAs, janitors and some teachers worked together and it was actually kind of fun. But now until the fall term starts, no school and there are no jobs available and no pay. And, we can't apply for unemployment. I think it's just wrong!

I called the state and the gal I spoke to didn't know the statute and said to apply anyway. I might. Haven't decided yet.

Apparently contracting the Covid-19 disease is a side effect of lockdown due to COVID-19... at least in NY.


Cuomo says it’s ‘shocking’ most new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who had been staying home

I dont know if we have a particularly deadly strain in Illinois or what... but we had in my city alone 2 lunch program workers/drivers who were still working and delivering food die from Covid. They stayed at work because basically the Breakfast and lunch some kids get from school is all they get to eat all day... or the only mildly nutritious. So they spread it all over too... and then our nursing homes and assisted living centers are being hit badly.. which we expect, but still is rough. Had to almost empty out the city and county jails as well. I mean we have the many milder cases, but the Il deaths seem a little "off"..

Apparently Overdose death is a side effect to lockdowns

Overdoses are spiking on Long Island due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has reversed progress that the region made in fighting the opioid crisis amid joblessness, stress, and isolation were brought on by COVID-19, data shows.

Fatal overdoses are up 43 percent in Suffolk County since the pandemic began, with 42 residents dying just in the last four weeks, according to police reports of suspected overdoses. Non-fatal overdoses increased by 19 percent this year, Suffolk police said. Nassau County only released the number of non-fatal overdoses for 2020, which are up by eight percent this year, police said. 


Research released this week by the California-based public health foundation Well Being Trust found that as many as 75,000 Americans could die because of drug or alcohol misuse and suicide because of the pandemic unless access to mental health care and community support are improved. 

www.longislandpress.com...