Special Report Covid Coffee Chronicles

Episode 64 Healthcare Coverage in the Time of Corona

White Dove Coffee,Flagstaff Arizona

We first met Chris Rivera at White Dove Coffee in Flagstaff Arizona on season one, Episode 21 Peace Microsoft and the Weirdo Net. For the correlation to coffee listen to this episode to hear his whole background story. Chris is an agent for Aflac, an American insurance company and largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. During this pandemic he is maintaining his status as a health insurance advisor for small and local businesses in this region. You can imagine the calls that he is getting now in this time of Covid-19. One question however seems to be paramount on most peoples minds....Am I covered.Previously Chris met with clients, often in person, to discuss their healthcare needs and give guidance for specific coverage after a job loss. Listen along as we discuss these issues, and short term disability, with the specter of pandemic overhead.With this pandemic it seems like everyone knows, or is the someone now in the unemployment line. How has this affected his business, and what is the correlation to disability? He is still meeting with clients, but now, like most of the work force it is virtual, and from his home office.Did we get a warning about this “plague” as Chris calls it... how long did we have to get ready, and what did we do to prepare for the fight with our “invisible enemy”. In this new kind of warfare what is the ammunition and how can we be the “Rosie the riveter of our time. It used to be that the military were the only ones fighting, not with this pandemic. Just ask the doctors, nurses,respiratory therapists PA's,grocery store clerks and garbage men. There are still strategists ( the medical and scientific community) and then there are an awful lot of foot soldiers like you and me, carrying out the day to day fight through hand washing, social distancing, and simply staying at home. Can you really escape by retreating to your cabin or vacation home in an underpopulated area? How was the rural health system doing in this country before this all started and what do you think is happening now?If ever a Dylan lyric fits, it’s now, “ the times they are a changin” my friend.