By Sha’Micah Hicks,
Opinion commentary
Please help me—and many others like me. Help you and your loved ones, as you save money
This is a request from an 18-year-old who works 40 hours a week with senior citizens and is trying to finish high school.
I earn just over $16 an hour before taxes are taken out. Although I work, fulltime, in a St Paul facility that helps senior citizens, my employer does not provide any medical care benefits for me. It’s impossible for me and thousands of other Minnesotans to afford health care.
A March 2026 report from the Minnesota Department of Health found a “sharp increase in uninsured Minnesotans.” They say that about 116,000 Minnesotans are without health insurance. health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/2026/uninsured031026.html.
I can understand this.
As a teenager, I experienced homelessness.
In 2017, my family’s house burned due to a gas leak in our duplex. My parents did not have renters’ insurance. They were both working two jobs already. It caused tremendous stress. I stopped going to school.
My mom was barely able to work. It was really bad. My mother began looking for help with state and community resources. She discovered that she could receive assistance if she was a single mother or fleeing a domestic relationship.
This limitation in available housing played a significant role in my parents’ separation. My family could not get services at first because our father was still with us. Something had to be a problem before my mom could get housing help—we couldn’t just need the help.
A lot of programs help kids and young adults, but there are requirements. You need to be a single mom, or you need to actually be homeless.
When people think of homelessness, they think of people outside, sleeping at a park or in the car. But you also can be homeless going house to house. If you don’t have a stable home to go to every night, then you’re homeless.
My mother has now moved into senior citizen housing. I’m on my own. I’ve found an apartment and have a full-time job.
My research shows that in some countries—medical care is provided by the government. Getting good medical care does not depend on where you work.
The National Library of Medicine (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8572548) cites research showing health care spending in the U.S. is the highest per capita of any country in the world, but 37 million Americans have no health insurance, and 41 million have inadequate access to health care.
A single payer plan would result in a 13% saving in national health care, more than $450 billion/year.
Currently, I can’t afford health care. A big medical bill could make me homeless again. I don’t want that. I want what each of us wants—decent medical care.
I’m working hard—hoping that people who read this will help me—and you—by working for better and more affordable health care via the single payer system.
The Minnesota Health Plan (SF932/HF1812) is a proposed bill in the 2025-2026 legislative session aiming to establish a single-payer, universal healthcare system for all state residents. It won’t be passed this year—but I hope people will join Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and Rep Liz Reyer, DFL- Eagan, to help it pass next year.
Sha’Micah Hicks lives in St. Paul.