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Comment by Mikeb85 | Hacker News Reader

Seems to me like the author is seriously overqualified to be working at the Container Store. That's probably why she was rejected.

Also, the whole article is a great example of why single-payer socialised health care is a good thing. Living in Canada, I don't have to worry that a job loss means no health coverage.

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Speaking of Canada, in her situation, I'd think about trying to get refugee status in Canada. If her cancer comes back from lack of treatment she's just doomed her kids to becoming orphans. Its not like she'd be leaving a vibrant economy behind, if there's basically nowhere to work. There must be jobs somewhere, and if not in the USA anymore, gotta be somewhere...

Where I live, everyone is underemployed, so I know without looking that she's a coastie. If coasties want to see their future, look around "the greater Chicago area". Everyone is like a former tool and die mechanic working as an oil changer, or a math degree holder working in a call center, or a biz grad working food service, or a former K12 teacher working as a waitress. If overqualified people were not hired, pretty much no one would be hired. Its pretty nuts.

>Living in Canada, I don't have to worry that a job loss means no health coverage.

I wouldn't be that smug; you're still one accident or one cancer away from destitution. The surgery may be fully covered, but you're shit out of luck if you're unemployed and need physio/cancer drugs.

I'm still baffled by the complexity Americans have to put up with, but we still got pretty large cracks in our system.

There's also employment insurance from the government, disability insurance, etc... I grew up knowing someone who's been legitimately disabled for 20 years. She owns a house and gets on fine, not rich by any means, but lives a decent quality of life, without any family to speak of. Our social net isn't ideal, but its much better than most Canadians think (I know its a Canadian quality to be critical of ourselves)...

Single-payer isn't the only way to achieve this goal.

How about medical insurance that isn't tied to employers? I'm not at risk of losing my car insurance just because I lost my job.

That wouldn't really address this issue all that much. A lot of people don't have the savings to continue payments, so yea, they would be at risk of losing their car insurance (and health insurance) when unemployed. (Yes I know that unemployment insurance exists but that's also the case in the health insurance case with COBRA et al).

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