It is not really that I want to do it, but I have no other choice. You all know that San Francisco is my favorite town and that I value a lot of things over Germany.
Never have I felt more at home and "in the right place" than in San Francisco, but sometimes when digging a little deeper - under the glow and brightness of California there are realities that tell you how deceptive this "Fairy tale city" actually is.Unfortunately!
I went for lunch with a friend of mine - as you know, I just came to the city a few months ago and wrote about it in the first chapter. He is a recent law graduate from a well-known San Francisco law school - with just 25 years he graduated from one of the best law schools in the country. His mission is an honest one: he wants to work as a lawyer for the California state. With this vision he is willing to accept much lower salaries than all those graduates who strive for careers in the big law firms working on solving cases for all the corporations out there.
Problem is, that it's damn hard to land a job as a lawyer in California right now and some law schools have unemployment rates of > 30%.
So, my friend is looking for a job - at the same time having some serious health issues as he is a seizure patient. He needs to take prescription medicine on a constant basis to stay healthy and free from seizures.
Problem is: as soon as he ended his study program he was not allowed into the insurance program which he had access to as a law student. Now, he has been looking for a job for a few months and is unable to get insurance. Why? "With a pre-existing condition no insurance will take me", he tells me and there is no chance that he can get any financial support from any of the government insurance programs such as Medicare or Medicaid as he is neither old enough or poor enough.
My friend is desperately waiting for the Obama Care to start and hoping not to go through another seizure till that point - at this point he has no health coverage whatsoever.
He is still in debt due to his student loan and won't be able to afford any health expenditures if they should occur - his last seizure treatment cost him 30.000 USD.
"You know, this is why America sucks", he told me and I looked outside of the little sandwich shop we were having a lunch together. The sky was bright and blue and a singing guy with Rastas and big headphones was walking by and smiling at us. "So would you ever wanna leave?" I asked and he shook his head. "Unfortunately not - I am addicted to this city ... its sun and peace and people... unfortunately!"
Never have I felt more at home and "in the right place" than in San Francisco, but sometimes when digging a little deeper - under the glow and brightness of California there are realities that tell you how deceptive this "Fairy tale city" actually is.Unfortunately!
I went for lunch with a friend of mine - as you know, I just came to the city a few months ago and wrote about it in the first chapter. He is a recent law graduate from a well-known San Francisco law school - with just 25 years he graduated from one of the best law schools in the country. His mission is an honest one: he wants to work as a lawyer for the California state. With this vision he is willing to accept much lower salaries than all those graduates who strive for careers in the big law firms working on solving cases for all the corporations out there.
Problem is, that it's damn hard to land a job as a lawyer in California right now and some law schools have unemployment rates of > 30%.
So, my friend is looking for a job - at the same time having some serious health issues as he is a seizure patient. He needs to take prescription medicine on a constant basis to stay healthy and free from seizures.
Problem is: as soon as he ended his study program he was not allowed into the insurance program which he had access to as a law student. Now, he has been looking for a job for a few months and is unable to get insurance. Why? "With a pre-existing condition no insurance will take me", he tells me and there is no chance that he can get any financial support from any of the government insurance programs such as Medicare or Medicaid as he is neither old enough or poor enough.
My friend is desperately waiting for the Obama Care to start and hoping not to go through another seizure till that point - at this point he has no health coverage whatsoever.
He is still in debt due to his student loan and won't be able to afford any health expenditures if they should occur - his last seizure treatment cost him 30.000 USD.
"You know, this is why America sucks", he told me and I looked outside of the little sandwich shop we were having a lunch together. The sky was bright and blue and a singing guy with Rastas and big headphones was walking by and smiling at us. "So would you ever wanna leave?" I asked and he shook his head. "Unfortunately not - I am addicted to this city ... its sun and peace and people... unfortunately!"
