Renton job club is not just a walking pile of potential medical bills
Apr 5, 2017, 8:14 AM | Updated: 11:02 am
The members of the Renton WorkSource Job Club. Those with hands raised have run out of unemployment benefits, and so don't count in the official unemployment rate. (IKIRO Radio)
(IKIRO Radio)
It sounds like there are going to be serious meetings to fix Obamacare. And I hope they do fix it, with the result being what the president promised: that everybody would be covered regardless of illness or income.
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Because that was an issue that came up when the I met with a group of unemployed people who attend a weekly job club in Renton. Some of them had earned six-figure salaries but have now exhausted their unemployment and their 401Ks.
“I used to shop exclusively at Nordstrom, now I shop at the Goodwill, and I can’t even afford that,” one woman told me.
Job club needs
And so I asked the job club attendees: What would help you?
One of the messages that came across loud and clear is that if you want to help us get a job, fix health care.
Listen to them:
The message I heard – especially from the unemployed people in their 50’s – was that without guaranteed health care, employers don’t see them as reliable experienced workers – but rather as a walking pile of potential medical bills. And they want to work!
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