The US government’s shutdown affected not only civil servants who weren’t paid for 35 days, but also about a million employees of government contractors, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. Moreover, unlike civil servants, the lost money won’t be compensated. In addition, they lost their insurance, which led to the accumulation of their debts.
Janice Morgan, an employee of the American firm Unispec, which provides American government agencies with highly qualified engineers and consultants, received bad news from the hospital, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung. Her husband, Milton, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, should have started intensive therapy. However, when he was on the verge of being fired, Janice received a call from a hospital pharmacy. She was told that her health insurance company could no longer cover the cost of medicines, which means she needed to pay $ 7,600 from her own pocket.
Like most American citizens, Janice and her husband are insured by the employer, the newspaper writes. Morgan called her boss, the founder of Unispec, who told he could no longer pay for insurance because of the shutdown.
Süddeutsche Zeitung recalls that the shutdown was terminated last week on Saturday. Its beginning was provoked by Donald Trump, who shortly before Christmas demanded Congress to adopt a $ 5.7 billion budget to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Democrats opposed this proposal: in the end, after 35 days, Trump backed down. Now, the Republicans and the Democrats have three weeks to work out a compromise: if it is not found, the country faces a new shutdown.
The government shutdown has affected 800,000 civil servants: they were not paid salaries during the shutdown. However, they will be reimbursed for losses, which cannot be said about the employees of the contractors of the American government. Their exact number is unknown – according to estimates given by the outlet, the number of such employees can reach 1 million people. Most of them are low — skilled workers-cleaners, janitors, but among them there are people like Janice Morgan. According to the results of the shutdown, they will not be compensated for a cent, besides, now they have a whole bunch of debts.
If there is a new shutdown, the nightmare will continue, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“I feel like a hostage,” — the outlet quotes Janice Morgan as saying. According to independent experts, the shutdown costed the economy $ 11 billion.
A protest against unequal treatment is flaring up in Washington. About 20 senators, headed by the representative of the democratic party Tina Smith, introduced a law, according to which, damages must also be compensated to employees of contractors. The Süddeutsche Zeitung notes that so far, the law has not received any support from Republican senators, which makes its adoption unlikely, since the Democrats do not have a majority in the Senate.