I got a pal, Chainsaw Sam, who, like a lot of us, works for himself. He lives pretty much hand-to-mouth, gets paid under the table, probably won\u2019t ever receive Social Security. He\u2019s a hard worker, does everything from tree removal to deck building, gives an honest day\u2019s labor for pretty much minimum wage pay. Sam doesn\u2019t complain \u2026 but then, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s hit him yet that there will never be what most of the immigrants to the island have: a retirement.<\/p>\n
\nSo when ObamaCare hit the ground limping last fall — the health insurance half of the country doesn\u2019t call by its actual name, the Affordable Care Act — I told Chainsaw he ought to check it out. With his income he probably would get affordable health care coverage. Sam, being a natural born libertarian who mistrusts the government, banks, politicians, newcomers, traditional medicine, the media and dogs that are pedigreed, wasn\u2019t sure he would. Maybe, maybe not. Not real sure he needed insurance, Sammy said. I said they\u2019ll give it to you nearly for free, whaddaya got to lose? \u201cYeah,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s what my mom sez too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nGreat. So now I\u2019m in the same category as his nagging mama. \u201cLook into it,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019re who they had in mind when they dreamed this bill up — all you uninsured yahoos. We got to pay for you anyway, so sign up, man.\u201d Chainsaw protested he\u2019d barely been sick a day in his life. Clean livin\u2019, brother. Clean Livin\u2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So of course two days ago I get the message he\u2019s fallen off a ladder, a little six foot tumble. Shattered wrist, broken elbow. Emergency room. Ambulance. Medics. No insurance. Operations scheduled. Rehab. Meds. Doctors. Nurses. The lady with the alligator purse. \u00a0\u00a0The Lord, it\u2019s said, helps those who help themselves. Even the government tries. I tried. His Mama tried. If ignorance is bliss, okay. Let\u2019s see if poverty is too\u2026..<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got a pal, Chainsaw Sam, who, like a lot of us, works for himself. He lives pretty much hand-to-mouth, gets paid under the table, probably won\u2019t ever receive Social Security. He\u2019s a hard worker, does everything from tree removal to deck building, gives an honest day\u2019s labor for pretty much minimum wage pay. Sam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4774,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions\/4774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}