Darren Bullock, 40, is a Trump voter who switched from the Democrats in 2016.
He is likely to lose Medicaid coverage because of the new requirements, although he is not hopeful of finding adequate employment.
“If they want people to work 80 hours a month, they’d need to bring in a lot more jobs,” he says.
I think its because change always sucks over here. I was a caregiver before COVID, the agency took Medicare, so my wages were set by a state committee. The state raised the minimum wage, but I never got a raise because the committee took years to approve one. The state passed a law mandating PTO, but it was less than the 2 weeks we were already getting, so we didn’t get more. I was doing overtime, living paycheck to paycheck, then the state decided that they wouldn’t transfer the clients to palliative care, and we needed to watch them die too. No bump in pay, but they gave us the number to an employee helpline that would tell management if you used it, so I never used it.
There was a client I had been taking care of for four years, and I held her hand so she wouldn’t die alone. I was out of PTO, couldn’t afford an unpaid mental health day, another longterm client died, and I drove into traffic. I haven’t been able to hold down a job since.
It’s said a rising tide lifts all boats, but sometimes people get caught in the undertow.