Sounds about right. I know of a current strike where workers are asking nearly 25%.

This hike in living expenses needs wages to catch up since no one seems willing to roll back to normal on “supply chain” hikes during COVID.

Providence Health was officially dinged for this. The nonprofit aspect is such a joke.

The nonprofit requirement allows for feeding profits back into the institution. This can come in the form of investing in employees. Instead of investing in workers who directly impact patients by issuing bonuses, the CEOs get bonuses.

Instead of forgiving bills for the poorest patients, they offer payment plans instead.

It doesn’t matter how well you manage and save your money. In your geriatric years, those hospital CEOs will take it all.

By simply having all PC games mod able and with accessible console commands, most issues will eventually have workarounds.

One issue with mother baby units is they are loss leaders. This is why not every hospital has them. They only drain money from a hospital. If the hospital has other money making specialists bringing in the cash, then the mother baby unit can stay.

The other piece is a hospital can only have units for the medical specialists they can attract. If, say, they can’t find cardiologists then there will be no cath lab, and patients needing that care will have to be transferred elsewhere. If, say, Alabama is having a hard time attracting OBGYNs due to archaic laws regarding women’s medical care, then the unit would have to close even if the hospital has no financial reason to do so.

Honestly, bread is a good start for something beyond defrosting frozen food on a cookie sheet in the oven.

Water, flour, yeast, and a bit of honey/sugar to start the yeast. Simple ingredients and you sit on your ass gaming/reading for most of it.

And it’s a confidence booster.

Indirectly, this is also a vote for OBGYN access. Doctors aren’t required to evenly distribute themselves across the states, they choose.

If they know they can’t follow through on the best care for their patients, whatever that looks like, that doesn’t incentivize an OBGYN to choose Cleveland over other places.

So if you’re a congressman they recover your vehicle.

If you live remote, say, an hour or more from real shopping and such it’s the way to get fast delivery on anything, though Walmart does ok with this, though their “fast” is fairly unreliable. (Great for front door delivery of kitty litter, dog food, etc)

But no, most people don’t need it because most people don’t live remote.