Examples in there of employee healthcare woes... sure with we just had universal healthcare.
I dropped out of medical school over a decade ago, so my opinion is absolutely jaded. Talking with graduate physicians, the general concensus is "universal healthcare will never happen in the US." So my suggestion to unencumbered youngins is to study/travel abroad, and begin your expatriation quest... OR: become an attorney (joke: "in the US, for a cancer diagnosis, the best outcome is to be a lawyer").
Better to just give up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, but if you're looking for "easier lifepath for average joe" then, like Southern Blacks of early 20th Century... you'd have an easier life if you just moved north.
You're not wrong, but not everybody has "the fight" within. I know I don't.
>in the year before there was a 100 billion dollar windfall
I am not sure of California's particulars, but some government profitabilities are largely on account of Pandemic Funding 2020-2022 (e.g. my local county hosptial for ~1M people would not have turned-profit w/out CoVid fund$).
...might as well unlink it to employers for the minority =/
The typical flow would be: current insurance continues unaltered for the rest of the month. Following month you're automatically covered under same policy through COBRA provisions even if you take no action. (Obviously some employers would include multiple months of employer-paid coverage, but this example is a worst-case scenario if they don't give any additional coverage in severance).
Somewhere in the 60 days following getting laid off, you need to decide between A) sign up to continue your existing insurance plan through COBRA B) sign up for a new insurance plan through healthcare.gov (subsidized if low income) or C) sign up on your spouse's plan if applicable.
It's a hassle, but you have a couple months to figure out what's best for you, and you can continue any ongoing things without interruption.