Last year on March 19, 2020, the first lockdown began with the Stay at Home order to combat the spread of Covid-19. Most of us did not imagine how much our daily life would be changed. One year later, many of us are more humble while realizing how fragile life can be and appreciating the importance of good health. All of us are yearning to just give a big hug to our friends and family and finally to travel again. Unfortunately, many of us lost a friend, a neighbor, or relative directly or indirectly during this long pandemic. Many Americans lost their jobs, and suddenly great thriving businesses had to shut down and are still not back to doing business as usual. Especially industries like entertainment, travel, restaurant, event management, fitness, and mom and pop shops are hard hit and will take years to recover. We have been through a lot and should recognize this. COVID-19 has been the accelerator of automation. Many of us were able to continue our work from home, and learn Zoom, Team, etc. to continue our work and personal relationships. We got familiar with telemedicine and our children spent a whole year of virtual education. Now we are ready for change and thankfully we have developed COVID-19 vaccines which will be available to all of us by May.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. In this year, health insurance companies worked together with the government and medical field to help Americans to combat COVID-19. Until May 15th, Californians can still make a change to their individual health insurance. With the new American Rescue Plan signed on March 11th, 2021 by President Joe Biden, more Americans will receive health insurance assistance and many Americans will receive even more federal premium tax credits retroactively to a January 1st effective date. With many regions in California now finally moving from the Purple Tier to the Red Tier, more businesses are opening up, slowly but surely. By moving to the Red Tier, retailers and shopping centers can operate at 50% indoor capacity, restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters, zoos, and aquariums at 25% indoor capacity, and gyms can operate at 10% indoor capacity. While this is great news, it is still very important that we all do our part to keep the COVID cases down by maintaining social distances, wearing a mask in public, and getting vaccinated once it is available.
At Solid Health Insurance Services, we want to honor those who have made it through the ups and downs of this historic pandemic and we are eager to move out of this pandemic together. If you are still shopping for health insurance, please contact us at info@solidhealthinsurance.com for us to better assist you. You can also get a free quote by clicking here.