In Nickel and Dimed, lack of health insurance forces the poor to work through their pain or illness "with gritted teeth." Otherwise, they won't have enough money for groceries or to meet other needs. This leads to a vicious cycle of what Ehrenreich calls "chronic deprivation and relentless low-level punishment."
Ehrenreich sees up close the problems lack of health insurance can cause when her coworker Holly at The Maids, an already unhealthy, underweight young woman...
In Nickel and Dimed, lack of health insurance forces the poor to work through their pain or illness "with gritted teeth." Otherwise, they won't have enough money for groceries or to meet other needs. This leads to a vicious cycle of what Ehrenreich calls "chronic deprivation and relentless low-level punishment."
Ehrenreich sees up close the problems lack of health insurance can cause when her coworker Holly at The Maids, an already unhealthy, underweight young woman of 23, falls down on the job and hurts her ankle. Holly has no health insurance and refuses to go the emergency room. She also refuses to go home, despite being in pain, because she can't afford to lose the day's pay. Ehrenreich also notes how expensive it can be for the poor to buy painkillers and medicine without health insurance.
When Ehrenreich works at the Hearthside, she meets a 50-something coworker named Lucy. Lucy limps near the end of her shift because something is wrong with her leg, but without health insurance, she can't afford to find out what the problem is. People like Holly and Lucy illustrate how lack of health insurance cause people to let health problems go untreated. When Nickle and Dimed was written, only Medicaid was available to the "desperately poor," and many of the people Ehrenreich worked with either earned too much or didn't apply. Today more people can qualify for subsidized health insurance but many still find it unaffordable, or if they live in a state without expanded Medicaid, unavailable.
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