Back in the 1970s, I began to wish for part-time work with benefits. It is now evident to me that if we had universal health coverage, the benefits paid by employers would no longer be an issue.
Today, I notice the children of families with both parents working full time are often left to themselves at the end of school day and in the summertime.
Many give up managing their teenage children and can only pray they live through it. For some, the option of choosing half-time work for each parent or of having one parent work full time while the other tends house and children would require too great a sacrifice (i.e., give up house with mortgage, or perhaps even the marriage itself).
What if we had universal health care and people had the freedom to choose greater employment flexibility? Those with no jobs could then work half-time (or even full time) in the positions that would come available, and the system would become more livable and more humane.
Just wondering.
Beth Suttle Estelle
Durango
