What does it cost us to remain med-compliant?

I'm glad you had the good sense to plan so well, and yet you are still feeling the strain. I'm sorry about that. But unlike you, most people are not physicians, especially not highly regarded ones.

According to the 2017 census, the median family income in the US was $59,000. And that was the median. You know that so many many more earned less than that. Many less than minimum wage. There is a big fight to not even raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour (in both parties), and many making less than minimum wage have no insurance or have to rely on Medicade or Obamacare, which one party dislikes immensely, as you stated earlier. I don't know, "Let them eat worms?" I guess that's what some politicians are thinking.

I saw job listings at my local grocery store "bragging" about starting pays of $12 per hour. If such a person at that wage worked 40 hours per week, throughout the year, their annual gross income would be around $25,000. Considering that the average annual property taxes in New Jersey are around $10,000, such a person would not be able to own my house easily. And I have a small townhouse in the suburbs. The schools are very good where I am, but probably not so good where someone making $12/hour could live, unless they lived with parents or dormitory style with several others. I'm pretty sure most physicians make well over $200 K per year with many surgeons heading towards $500 K, all of whom likely are given healthcare benefits, when they are working. They invest some of that money, too. We're all taxed, but people like Jeff Bezos hardly pays taxes, at all, especially since a couple years ago. Paul Ryan's great triumph! Lucky Jeff! Also, some are even shameless about it and state "That makes me smart, for not paying taxes." It's on video for all to see, straight from the orange horse's mouth.

Yeah, I had good insurance then.

You know, at the end of the month, I am pretty sure the added $600 a week in federal unemployment COVID benefits runs out and the Repubicans will not renew it. 30 million people will lose income. Representative McCarthy, who has the IQ of a snow pea and the empathy of a terrorist, said it would, and I quote: "...not be producctive..." to extend them further. Right. It is not productive for out of work families who cannot afford their mortgages to now not even be able to eat. Not productive.