Lack of Sick Days Strains Health Care, Too

LETTER RE: PAID SICK DAYS FOR LADY GAGA (AND EVERYONE ELSE)

While listening to the episode on sick leave I was thinking about the ridiculous burden put on the lowest resource health care centers by the simple fact that low wage workers do not have guaranteed sick time (or — God forbid! — paid sick time).

I spent much of my career as a primary care provider working in community health centers. So many of my patients, almost all low-wage workers, often working multiple jobs in hazardous conditions, would often over-utilize health services only because they had to prove to their employers that they were seen by a provider (i.e. they really were sick and not faking) via a doctor’s note. If they were allowed to simply take the day off because they didn’t feel good, as so many humans working manual labor and factory jobs are wont to do (as we are all wont to do), perhaps our country’s healthcare systems would be slightly less strained.

Workers rights = human rights.

Kate Hofstetter
Providence, Rhode Island
May 1, 2025