[mariojv]

I'm really sorry your comment is getting so much pushback. I have a brother with some Medicaid benefits in Texas who can never live independently. He's mute, can't take care of his own hygiene, and can't swallow food, so needs to be fed through a stomach tube. Medicaid is constantly trying to deny him nursing benefits, and he can't ever hold more than $2K in any of his accounts or he would lose SSI.

People have this fantasy that the social safety net takes care of people that can't take care of themselves, but that's really not the case. It is extremely easy to lose benefits and hard to get them in the first place for various services, with very long waiting lists for some things.

[hotpotamus]

HN is an interesting place, but the bubble of privilege is more like a concrete dome sometimes. I'll sometimes tell people to imagine getting hit on the head with a hammer and then being unable to continue working their cushy office jobs (that could also describe my employment to some degree), and how they'd adapt, but that tends to get downvoted.

I suppose I'm actually rather fortunate to some degree; a lot of my issues could likely be resolved with a hip replacement, and I'm told the latest ones are very robust and can lead to nearly full natural function, but I haven't quite built up the courage to replace part of my skeleton with metal and plastic. As I say, I'm rather happily employed these days, but I've also been throught the odd layoff, so I know how precarious things can be.