My dad was just diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. He had it removed, but they need to test if it went anywhere else. He had workable insurance from his long career, but was going to lose it after retirement. He decided early retirement was still worth the gap in insurance between that and Medicare. He had negotiated a year of coverage after retirement but there was still a 3 year gap.
The idea that his medical care has to be tied to this job and he's on his own to take care of this out of pocket is a slap in the face of workers. He worked his ass off, one of those manly men that didn't have much patience for doctors. The system is horrible, I don't know what else to say. They wanted him to retire so they could pay less, time to send another person through the meat grinder.
He's currently waiting until the 1st to see an oncologist to see how bad it actually is because there is no insurance. He's actually a few months from qualifying for Medicare, but may be gone by then if he has to wait. This is probably going to burn through his retirement even with our help.
Feature not a bug right? Icing on the cake, he's too trusting and got scammed by some Christian ministry presenting itself as insurance that I guarantee won't ever pay out. This whole system is shit.