Dina and Amy head to the hospital to deliver their children, but it turns out that Amy’s insurance isn’t accepted at the hospital they’ve shown up to, but Dina’s health insurance is accepted. Both work at Cloud 9, but managerial health insurance provides more benefits than other employees. This differencing of employee benefits contributes to inequality between white- and blue-collar workers.
Mateo has an ear infection and can’t afford to see a doctor because of their high deductible health plan. Since this is common in the store, Amy sets up a fake charity to help raise funds for Mateo to pay for a doctor’s visit. Jonah thinks this is preposterous and tries to setup a savings club that employees can use when they need it. After realizing how many pre-existing conditions his coworkers have, they realize that the $20 membership fee isn’t enough to cover all of their issues. These scenes serve as a good example of adverse selection since the sickest employees are more likely to sign up for the program since their healthcare costs outweigh the membership fee.
Mateo came down with an ear infection and his coworkers helped raise funds from store customers. He was secretly able to get some antibiotics so the money that was raised doesn’t need to go to a doctor’s visit. Instead, he considers spending the money on a messenger bag instead of healthcare.
The employees almost start a debate on the merits of public healthcare in the US when Cheyenne almost goes into labor in the store. She would like to take time off for herself, but she feels she needs to keep working in order to save as much money as possible for when she has to take time off after the baby is born. In other countries, this decision isn’t usually necessary since maternity leave is provided by the government.
It’s time for Cheyenne to deliver her baby, but there are no doctor in the store. Even though Sandra is a trained midwife, the other employees ignore her in exchange for a pharmacist, an employee who has delivered a calf, and another employee who has played a doctor in a theatre show. Each of the substitutes don’t have the actual training to deliver a baby, and the skills they possess likely don’t transfer to skill needed to deliver a baby. Only Sandra is actually qualified, but she doesn’t speak up.
There’s a long line of customers hoping to get a flu shot, but there’s only one vaccine left. Jonah has been tasked with identifying which customer will get the last flu shot for the day. Jonah argues that it should go to the person who needs it most, which would be an argument based on equity. The next person in line believes that he should receive the shot, which could be an argument in favor of efficiency. Because of the low price, there appears to be a temporary shortage. Rationing and a lack of a market for price adjustments creates shortages and inefficient allocations. The store could raise the price of the last remaining few shot as an incentive to have others return tomorrow for the normal price.
Mateo comes down with an ear infection and Jonah comes up with an idea to create a store insurance policy. Originally, the store raised money for medical bills by putting a donation jar out for customers to donate spare change. When Jonah realizes that takes a lot of work, he proposes creating a pool of funds from the employees and have them contribute monthly to cover someone’s bills. Unfortunately, he’s created a semi-pyramid scheme that requires individuals to donate money to help one individual.
After a coworker comes down with an ear infection, the team members decide to try and raise money to help cover the costs of medicine. Jonah decides to come up with a group health plan where each member donates money from their check and then covers the medical costs of store members whenever the become sick. Amy sarcastically points out that this is basically what health insurance is meant to do.
When Mateo gets sick, Jonah comes up with an insurance fund to help cover employee medical bills because the store does not offer health insurance. The team members join the plan because it only costs $20 each month, but Jonah has promised to pay previous medical bills. Jonah and Amy quickly find out each team member, especially Sandra, has a lot of pre-existing conditions and they realize that they can’t cover everyone’s costs at one time. The two try to break the two groups apart, but the members in the pre-existing condition group will have to pay significantly more to cover all their costs.
Mateo has come down with an ear infection and everyone in the store has a way of curing it. While some recommendations are more appropriate than others, each believes that their method will cause Mateo’s ear infection to be cured. The problem? They’re mixing up correlation with causation. Each of them believe their method will cause the ear infection to diminish, but they may only be experiencing a correlation.
Teaching with Superstore