Unprecedented.

Staggering.

Heartbreaking.

In the past two weeks alone, nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment.

Our nation’s unemployment rate could soon spike beyond what it was even in 1933, at the bleakest period of the Great Depression.

Maybe you were alive then.

Most of us weren’t.

Either way, I doubt many of us thought our country would be going through something like that again here in 2020.

And as alarming as these numbers are, they may be undercounting the true magnitude of job loss caused by the coronavirus:

• State unemployment offices — themselves understaffed because of the virus and, before that, years of misguided budget cuts at the hands of “conservative” governors and legislators — simply haven’t been able to keep phone lines open and outdated websites running for people to file.

• Hundreds of thousands of working people lost their jobs in the initial weeks of the pandemic, before the never-seen-before eruption in unemployment claims over the past two weeks (and counting).

• Millions more had given up looking for work long before that in an economy that was never as good for everyday Americans — as opposed to billionaires and Big Business — as Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and Fox “News” would have us believe.

AS UTTERLY DEVASTATING AS THIS UNEMPLOYMENT EXPLOSION IS, THAT’S NOT EVEN THE MAIN POINT OF THIS NOTE.

In addition to losing their paychecks — along with the pride, fulfillment, purpose and camaraderie a job can provide — millions upon millions of our fellow citizens have also, in the blink of an eye, lost their health insurance.

You know why.

Because we are all the hostages of a for-profit health care regime. (The coronavirus has, once and for all, exposed how irredeemably deficient this “system” is.)

Half of the people in this country have health insurance through an employer.

Every person who loses a job could also lose the health coverage they — and maybe a spouse and children as well — need.

All of this is happening as our country tries to survive the worst health crisis we’ve faced for at least a century.

We can do something about this.

An extremely successful social program — the most popular one in our nation’s history, in fact — can not only help individual Americans get through this but also help us collectively protect public health as the pandemic intensifies.

You may have heard of it — it’s called Medicare.

Stand with Public Citizen in urging Congress to immediately and automatically enroll in Medicare, throughout the duration of this emergency, any American who is or becomes unemployed.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

Stay safe.

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. This message is part of our ongoing outreach to help you stay informed and involved as our nation and the world grapple with the coronavirus emergency. Public Citizen — like many nonprofits and other small businesses — is feeling the financial strain as this crisis intensifies. If you can, please consider donating to support the critical work we’re doing together. Thank you.
 
 
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