Health Care Conversation
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surcharge: extra charge
defray: to lessen; to cover
(a cost)
makes sense: is
understandable; seems
sensible
fed up with: tired of; sick
of; angry about
Joe: Hey, you know I went out for lunch today with Sam and the restaurant we ate at
added an additional 5%
surcharge to the bill.
Kristin: Oh really, why is that?
Joe: Well, I guess it was to help
defray the cost of healthcare for their employees.
You know, I’ve noticed a lot of restaurants here in San Francisco doing that of late.
Kristin: Oh, that’s that Healthy San Francisco program.
Joe: Oh, yeah, that actually
makes sense.
Kristin: Yeah, I first found out about it a few months back when I went to a meeting
at work about it. Apparently I’m eligible.
Joe: Oh, yeah, yeah, I think I saw something about the eligibility rules being that you
need to make, uh, below a certain amount of money per year and you need to not
have, uh, health insurance.
Kristin: Right, and also you have to work a minimum of, I think it’s like 10 hours a
week, 10 or 12 hours a week.
Joe: Yeah, okay.
Kristin: Yeah, but you know, in general I’m just
fed up with the healthcare in this
country. I will say though, at least here in San Francisco we have some sort of safety
net like this new program.
Joe: Yeah, yeah it’s good that we have that program, but I hear where you’re,
y’know, I hear what you’re saying.
I am fed up with it, too.
I mean I read that the
U.S. spends twice as much per person on healthcare than any other industrialized
nation.
Kristin: Jeez.
Joe: Yeah. It’s the insurance companies. I mean, they act as a middle man
between the patients and the healthcare providers. And all they do is help to drive
the prices up.
Kristin: Um-hm. Yeah, well, you know, before a program was even in, even came