John,

For the first time in my life, I’m not going to have employer-provided health insurance.

To run for Congress I had to take an unpaid leave of absence from my day job, which means the end of my employer-provided health insurance. When I was offered COBRA, which extends you the same coverage you have at your job, they quoted me at $1475 per month.

That’s $1,475 a month for the same coverage it costs me and my employer combined a total of $650 a month. How is it possible that continuing the same health coverage that I have from my employer would cost me over twice as much? 

No-one should be forced between choosing ridiculously expensive health insurance or no health insurance at all. That’s why I’m fighting for universal, single-payer healthcare — support our campaign so I can fight for it in Congress.

Because I have asthma in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis I can’t just get catastrophic coverage and hope for the best. Because COBRA is out of my reach, I decided to get my health insurance through ACA. Of course, you learn that if you make more than $52,000 a year, you are not eligible for any subsidies and the types of programs that are available to you depend on where you live--and they can be very limited.

I had an option to choose from three plans — each one had a multi-thousand dollar deductible and a monthly premium that ranged from $550 to $800. That doesn’t include your copay, your drugs, your co-insurance.

The system is so complicated that I don’t actually know that the plan I selected will work for me or not.

Our current healthcare system is complicated, and it is complicated by design. It is full of waste, fraud, and abuse. We desperately need a single-payer system like Medicare for All because we all deserve to have coverage that covers all of our needs, not just a select few.

But to pass Medicare for All, we need representatives who won’t be bought by private health insurance companies that only care about profits. I will never be bought by special interests, which is why I need you to help power our campaign through this month. Chip in now.

Your healthcare should never be tied to your employment, it should be tied to the fact that you are a human being.

Eva