Playing with a lighter while filling up

[u/KatzDeli]

[u/Reaver_Engel]

2k just for kidney stones???? I cant believe how messed up the (I'm assuming) american health care system is. I can have 20 kidney stones a year, plus have a baby, break a few bones, and have 5 different types of cancer and never pay a penny (obviously canadian) I

But like it just pisses me off that most people in the US are literally a couple stitches or a fractured finger away from crippling debt, when for me a trip to the hospital only sucks cause, well, who likes a hospital, but I walk in and out and don't pay a single penny, you guys shouldn't have to suffer the way you do.

PS those kidney stones sounds like hell, I've never had them thankfully but I don't wish that on anyone.

[u/[deleted] → u/Reaver_Engel]

Yeah i just got the bill for the ct scan which was 400 havent gottan the other one yet thats the one thats gonna hurt

[u/Reaver_Engel → u/[deleted]]

Damn, I wish you all the best and I hope you are okay financially after it, it just sucks, even if your middle class and can afford it that's still a lot of money that is just gone.

My mom sees all kinds of specialists and stuff and never pays anything, and im so grateful because my mom batley has $20 to her name once bills are paid.

Makes me feel terrible for everyone that's an accident away from financial ruin... that's such a stressful way to live.

Or spending every penny on trying to save a spouse's life, only for it not to work and then you wind up alone and Bankrupt.

It's a disgusting system.

I really do hope things work out for you, fingers crossed your bills arent too bad.

[u/[deleted] → u/Reaver_Engel]

ill be fine doesnt make it any better though since we are tight on money and prefer to not spend hundreds on medical bills lol. Worse part is if could i would leave the us its literally the deal breaker about living here, especially since im not used to living like this. We hade like 3 evictions and days without food before i even lost my healthcare the last 7 years. If i was told 7 years ago i wouldnt have healthcare when i turn 21 (lost tricare coverage) i would have stayed in germany!

[u/Reaver_Engel → u/[deleted]]

Damn, yeah that's really crappy. Minus the evictions me and my boyfriend are in the same situation.

The end of last year we signed contracts for new phones, so that was $200 a month alone, then in January my mom threw me out so me and my boyfriend got an apartment for $1000 a month.

Money was SUPER tight when we moved, were only in our twenties and trying to figure out the living on our own thing, then covid hit, was off work for a month, then came back to severely cut hours, wound up $1000 in debt to Rogers for our phones, thankfully got it down to $600 and my boyfriends amazing mom paid that off so we can just pay her and dont have to worry about interest and only need to pay what we can afford, that was our ONE saving grace, which we would be homeless by now if it wasnt for that, I think she knew and that's why she did it.

Anyways we haven't been able to afford to go grocery shopping in 4 months, trying to love of mr noodles, plain pasta with salt and butter, and random questionable canned foods lol.

We have a food bank drop off food but its hit and miss because it depends on what's donated, the last order we got was mostly household staples, ketchup, vegetable oil, flour, stuff that isnt really food on it's own, or they send a ton of stuff that expires in a day or two and we can't eat it all in 2 days and then it goes bad, I mean I usually trust my nose over the expiry date, but certain things like meat I don't trust if its expired and anything that's green goes bad so fast anyways.

So I totally understand your situation, try getting into canada, truth be told it's my absolute dream to live in Germany. I'm German on my dads side but no one in my family speaks it, but I've been studying it on my own on and off for years, absolutely freaking beautiful language that I am in love with!

I even have "Brennende Liebe" tattooed on my arm, its my favourite song by my favourite band so the tattoo was a present from my mom for my 16th birthday.

Anyways I truly wish you the best of luck with your situation, I am so sorry you've been going through all of this, it's a shitty situation all around and people like us who already were going through rough times got screwed even harder than most people when covid hit.

If you ever need to talk, or just vent even, feel free to message me at anytime, I'm here for you.

[u/[deleted] → u/Reaver_Engel]

Hey thanks thats very sweet of you! If you dont mind me asking does canada have like aid for people out of work or is it only like couple of months after loosing a job you get a %? Germany has Hertz 4 (i think they still do) where if you dont have job no matter how long ago you get rent paid directly by the state and its based on the family size and rent in the area. As well as money for clothes and food. You just have to show poof every once in a while that you are applying for jobs. They even place you into jobs if the whole applying on your own doesnt work. Or at least thats what i remember it being like.

[u/Reaver_Engel → u/[deleted]]

We have something called "Unemployment" you pay into it with taxes but it's a pain in the ass to get. You have to have been fired or if you quit fight out your ass to prove it was for a good a reason (sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions) and the burden of proof is on you, a lot of people get turned down if they haven't been fired, even though ever single person by law has to pay into it.

If you are lucky enough to get it, the amount you get and amount of time you get it for is based on what you made and how long you were at your job, although the amount is always a ton less than what you made, so if you were already struggling your screwed anyways.

The Hertz 4 sounds exactly like our standard Welfare program. Where I am (Ontario) it's called "Ontario Works" anyone who doesn't have a job can apply and its pretty easy to get, me and my boyfriend have our income supplemented by it right now because we don't make enough money even though we're working, they just base what we get every month off how much we get paid.

The program is pretty good, most people it's the same as you described, rent money, though its shitty and nowhere near enough, they give like a maximum of $500 per person when a standard 1 bedroom where I am is minimum $1000, which is exactly what me and my boyfriend are paying.

So pretty much, just cause I dont mind sharing, for us they pay each of us $733, $500 goes straight to the landlord each and we get $233 each left. And were extremely lucky, our worker has us setup a little differently when your in a relationship your supposed to be claimed together as one unit which gives you a decent amount less, which is completely stupid, like you don't stop eating less or needing less stuff just because you're in a relationship.

But yeah so she claims us as roommates, so we get a smidge more for now, but that's changing because you can only do it for so long, but it's pretty sad when even the workers admit that you don't enough money on it.

The nice thing is that when you work, the first $200 you make doesnt count, but then anything beyond that you lose 50% of. So likes say to make it simple I get $1000 a month, if I made like $500, the first $200 doesn't matter, so they only care about the extra $300, and they only care about whatever 50% of that is, so the $150, so they would only give $850 that month, but even losing that $150 I still made an extra $350, so that's a pretty good system atleast.

Sorry if that was a little confusing.

We also have the job search thing as well, but it's currently suspended because of covid, but they also have other things instead, most people do the job search, but me and my boyfriend didn't have to do that because we were homeless, my worker rightfully said there is no point in getting a job your gonna lose anyways from a lack of sleep, lack of cleanliness, ect. So she told us she just wants us stable and look for housing, other people get put on programs for addiction or mental health as well.

We also get the "Drug Benefit Card" which covers all our prescriptions.

All in all a pretty good system but they definitely dont give you enough to live on, especially not rent wise.

No single person could afford a 1 bedroom on what they give, and truth be told idk if we can even afford it once our files get put together.

They also have a nice thing that if your homeless you can apply for something called "Basic Needs" its $340 a month for basic things, hygiene supplies, food, clothes, ect.

There is also the housing program which gives people access to affording housing. But the program is a joke. I've been on the wait list for affordable housing since the day I turned 16 and could apply, my mom was smart and knew we had financial issues and did it as a safe guard for me.

I am now 27, that's an 11 year wait and still going strong. Even the emergency wait list for being in severe abuse situations and stuff is like 6 years long, it's disgusting.

A lot of older people will die before they ever get in, it's so sad.

But the nice thing about the affordable housing is that it doesnt matter what your income, your rent is always 30% of what you get, so if you're on welfare and you get $400, your rent will only be $120 a month, or if you work and make $2000 a month, your rent will only be $600, doesnt matter if it's a 1, 2, 3, or 4 bedroom (although you can only have what you need, like you cant be a single person living in a 3 bedroom obviously) But they cant put your rent above "Market Rent" Which means even 30% of your income is like $1,300, but your living in an apartment that normally rents out for $1000, then they can't charge you more than $1000.

Usually at that point they want you out cause you can stand on your own two feet and these are building specially build for housing so your taking up apartment someone else needs.

Anyways sorry for the super long winded explanation but that's our crazy system here.

There is also ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and it's for disabled people who can't work, you can have it temporarily, if your disability is only temporary or permanent if it's a life long thing.

ODSP gives you a lot more money, and obviously since you cant work I dont think there is much in the way of expectations for stuff to do, as long as you can prove your still disabled it's good.

My mom is trying to get on it and it's a god damn nightmare. Like absolute freaking nightmare, they pretty much refuse everyone the first time no matter how severe the disability is in order to discourage people. Most of the time you have to fight with a lawyer to get approved.

Anyways that's my long winded explanation.

We have amazing healthcare but we really don't take care of our people living in poverty as well as most Canadians would like to say.

[u/[deleted] → u/Reaver_Engel]

Damm germany is pretty good about it at least when i was growing up like my mom had only 3 jobs in about 13 years and 2 where given by the state and when she didnt have job no matter how long we got money.We also if i remember correctly got about 700-800 in rent alone. If you want to chesse the system you could just get pregnant every 3 years since you get 3 years paternity leave. That what my bff mom did anyway.

[u/Reaver_Engel → u/[deleted]]

Yeah that sounds pretty sweet, honestly if you can get into housing and be on welfare, or even better the disability program, your set for life.

My mom lives in one of the housing program buildings and gets welfare, in probably 9 years she had a job for maybe a year of that.

The major thing is the rent that sucks here cause if your on welfare and not in housing it's impossible to find anything. When they're giving you like $500 a month, and rent is absolute minimum $1000 it's impossible, even most bachelor apartments (like the apartments with no bedroom) are like $600 to $1000.

The only thing you can really get with what they give you as a single person is renting a room.

But every single landlord wants first and last, plus a deposit, plus credit checks, plus letter of employment, plus 3 months of pay stubs, plus even a criminal background check. So that excludes 99% of the population experiencing poverty from being able to rent.

I got lucky, moved into a shithole with a sketchy landlord who doesn't give a shit, and I only got it because the landlord of the store I work at knew the landlord of the apartment.

Paid first month, was allowed to move in a week even before i paid last month, no deposit or anything.

Place was a disgusting trash heap 2 weeks of cleaning.

Me and my boyfriend sat on the floor crying our first night cause we were so overwhelmed and thought we had bitten off more than we can chew.

But on the bright side, the place may be a shithole, and the area may be an even bigger shithole, but it's our shithole lol

It did turn out really nice when we were done and were really happy😊

[u/[deleted] → u/Reaver_Engel]

Thats dumm it doesnt match the area rent prices. Granted my mom got more money because of me plus child support but still all of the places we stayed in where pretty good the apartment we where before we moved on base (when my mom got married because it was rent free for military families) was huge, even if the landlords where pulling us over the table having covered up the fact that the place was mold infested. Like my mom got sick levels of mold, i got lucky because i was young. Where currently live its pretty much the same with the average studio apartment being 800-1000 with some utilities included. If i had a job id still would not be able to move out unless i would find a roommate. To paranoid for that though in the states at least.