Main reason I ask is because Chillindude, a prominent member of the competitive Melee community had a stroke recently and as he’s relatively healthy and works out often, he doesn’t have health insurance, and even though he’s sponsored by Team Liquid, one of the largest e-sports teams out there, because he is classified as an independent contractor, he doesn’t have health insurance through them.
The way he got the stroke was through an infection in his knee that he got misdiagnosed twice, and the hospital was going to throw him out even because he’s been stabilized, but doesn’t have coverage, which to me is actual BS but I’m honestly curious as to why this would be the case, considering strokes need so much recovery done for them.
Situations like this is part of why I couldn’t write my own thing for the ideal society post I made the other day, because I have no clue how healthcare should be handled. I do know however that portions of why healthcare is so expensive is due to the companies that make the equipment being anti-“Right to Repair” and the actual repair costs of the equipment being outrageous (Louis Rossmann made that a video months ago and I can’t find it), but still, this whole situation is really outrageous to me, that the hospital was going to throw him out after he stabilized due to a lack of proper coverage, and that stroke recovery as a whole is as expensive as it is in the US. I’d love to hear from our European people if it’s really any better there or am I being lied to, but still, idk what the solution really is.
Edit: I’m in the US, so this is pretty important for me to know.
He feel for the independent contractor scam and didn't properly protect himself from the consequences of it. He has my sympathy but that's a really stupid idea in a lot of ways.
Unfortunately basically every sponsored e-sports player and every YouTuber is classified as an independent contractor. I’m 99% sure physical athletes are treated as employees of their teams because of the unions that most leagues have, but I’m not certain.
That sounds like a problem with the industry and a good reason to not put all your eggs in one basket. Like, its a horrible position to be in. But that's why you can't just "follow your passion" into markets that treat people like that.
Especially as, which was my point, you know that is the case and then you willingly choose to not cover your bases. If he wasn't making enough money to afford insurances, then he shouldn't have worked in an industry that screws him twice.
He’s been playing Melee since he was like 15, and he’s been involved in competitive Smash for half of his life at this point, so I get why he didn’t get insurance, which I don’t blame him, especially since he lives in the DC area and everything’s more expensive around DC.
I kinda hate the reason why e-sports teams do that, which is so they can drop their MOBA players when they need to, but that trickled down to the rest of the industry, which sucks.
There is no point in your life where you are safe enough to not have insurance. If you cannot guarantee your safety physically (pro tip, you cannot) then you must do so monetarily. We can all hate the system, but at the end of the day that's the way it is.
Esports will never be a real industry as long as it amounts to nothing more than "local tourney setup" but with big names attaching themselves to milk advertising. Constantly settling for being treated like a slave is why its never improved past that.