The worst place to be in America isn't poor. It's middle class with no savings.
Open enrollment texted me, so I went down a Medicaid rabbit hole, and I need everyone to understand how broken this is.
If you qualify for Medicaid, a procedure that costs thousands barely costs you anything. Doctor visits, hospital stays, prescriptions, basically covered.
Make $45k a year with "good" employer insurance? Congrats, you're paying hundreds a month in premiums just to hit a $5,000 deductible before anything kicks in. One ambulance ride and your emergency fund is gone. You don't have an emergency fund? Even better, now it's medical debt.
And here's the part that breaks my brain: the system is designed so climbing out is a trap too. Get a raise that pushes you just over the line and you lose coverage overnight. Try to save money while on disability and they cap you at about $2,000 in assets. Poor people are locked in. Middle class people are bleeding out. The only people winning are the ones rich enough to never think about any of this.
We work full time to be one bad diagnosis away from ruin. This country isn't failing the poor or the middle class. It's farming both.
We are so cooked.