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“A Polish mom asked if I could recommend a dentist for her son, David. I warned her that Ben’s dentists . . . like to be paid up front, letting the patient’s family do the waiting for insurance reimbursement. Not a problem, she said—they probably take Medicaid, and her son is covered through Illinois’s universal health insurance for children.
“‘David gets $600 a month of medications for his asthma, and Medicaid pays for that. He can see the doctor, he can go to the dentist. I don’t know what I would do without that. Thank you, President Bush,’ she said.
“I was entertained last night by my 8th grader’s homework assignment, to write a letter to Mayor Daley about what he ought to do [regarding the big-box minimum-wage ordinance]. The assignment was preceded by one in which students had calculated the cost of supporting a family of four in ‘their community,’ so that they were pushed to think that a job ‘must’ pay a living wage. Still, not unaware of the problem of discouraging stores from coming in to Chicago, a letter was produced in which the Mayor was encouraged to accept the minimum wage but exempt stores from the high minimum wage if they opened in areas that needed jobs or lower prices.”
