We HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE WORKING POOR, people. It's there.
Bullshit. There is absolutely such thing as affordable health care NOR health insurance. Show me a link where my brother, a sous chef, who makes $12 an hour (which is well above minimum wage, is it not?) can afford health insurance or health care beyond a basic clinic. Most restaurants only offer health insurance to management, you know...I (and he) would love to know. Oh yeah, it doesn't exist. Last I checked, it costs upwards of $300 a month for a shitty, bare bones policy if you buy it on your own. Even I couldn't afford that, and I'm considered middle class-soon to be lower class. If my employer didn't offer matched health care benefits, I wouldn't be able to afford insurance NOR health care, either and that's a fact.
I'm a caseworker, you ******* idiot.
Read what I said. For the destitute, there is medicaid, provided the primary wage earner hasn't been denied UC for no-call no show or some other equally idiotic event. Even then, the rest of the family remains eligible.
For the working poor, there are programs such as FHIAP which subsidizes health care for people like your brother. Yes, they're bare bones policies. That will pay for catastrophic illness, vaccinations, regular preventative care, and prescriptions (usually with a small co-pay). That's what the left is shrieking about, people finding themselves without care and in the gutter because they suddenly find themselves ill, unable to work, and unable to afford health care. BULLSHIT. You can always get health care, whether you can afford it or not.
Currently we have what we call a "reservation list" in Oregon. They've opened up OHP to non-pregnant adults. It's a lottery system and 6000 a month are pulled from the hat and if they are eligible, voila, they have health care.
Here are the financial guidelines:
1 person (adult): $903 a month
2 persons (adult): $1215 a month. But children can be covered if the income is up to $2441. The Healthy Kids subsidy income limit for a 2-person hh with a kid is $3655.
Oh shit, I'll give you the link to the chart.
http://www.dhs.state.or.us/policy/selfsufficiency/publications/ss-pt-09-002-de5530.pdf
If your brother is single, no kids in the hh, sure he's going to have a hard time getting health insurance if he makes more than the $903 a month. He's a SINGLE HEALTHY MALE. And in Oregon, he's going to have to wait for that. But eventually he'd get it, because those who aren't drawn go on a waiting list and will get thrown into the mix every single time they pull names. Most people who apply eventually get it.