SF Stories: Meet Louize, business owner and cancer survivor
Why we need Medicare For All
“The way the system is here, when you fall you can fall really hard”
In 2012 I got diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time I had medical coverage but I had a $4500 deductible. The way the system is here, you know, unless you got savings behind you, when you fall, you can fall really hard.
At that time, my friends and my community here at the hair salon stood by me, and had a fundraiser because I wasn’t working for three months, because when I”m not here I’m not making money. Even though I’m the owner of this business, there’s so much money that is taken and taxed from us, and we have to pay part of the medical for our employees…by the time you have a small business here, as a small business there isn’t any excess, it’s just what I make at my chair.
And that’s frustrating, because here I am with a really successful business that been here for 25 years and yet if I got ill, I don’t have a back up cushion.
“That is a system that is broken, as far as I’m concerned.”
Basically the system should work without having your whole community paying for you.The only way this worked for me is because people that I had that were friends that have money gave it to me to help me through that time.
That’s what scares me…when I see women that are probably my age on the streets, and they look a lot older than me because they’re on the streets, and I’m like, where is their community? That is a system that is broken, as far as I’m concerned.
