What happens when people are sick and can't work?

I know it's been an entire week since I've posted anything and that is so rare for me!  But I've been sick with this miserable cold with constantly shifting symptoms.  First the head, then the breathing, then a sore throat.  I'm five days in and still not feeling well.

What being sick means for me is working limited hours, doing some work at home, but still being paid my regular amount because Foodshare provides paid personal time for our employees.  (And needless to say when I'm only working a few hours a day, the blog falls to a very low priority!)

What being sick means for many workers today is making a choice between going to work sick or taking time off wihout pay.  Going to work sick can mean not doing as good a job as usual, infecting other people, and not getting well as quickly as if you could rest.  Staying home without pay can put someone in the food pantry line in order to feed their family that week!

What an awful choice for someone to have to make.  And yet, these are the kind of choices that low-income working people are faced with all the time.  Do I pay the heat bill or do I buy groceries?  Do I fix the car so I can get to work or do I buy groceries?  Do I buy my child desperately needed new sneakers or do I buy groceries?  The list goes on and on...

I'm not sure that I know what the solution to this problem is, but I do not think that hard-working Americans should have to stand in a bread line just because they were unlucky enough to get sick!