Royce's Random Thoughts

Ali sat curled up on a chair, arms wrapped tight around her legs, chin resting on her knees, and waited. She knew perfectly Salli would be coming in a moment, either in tears or quietly furious, and that she was going to have to push Salli away again, for the sake of not permanently cracking the noblevixen’s bond with her family.

Get up, she told herself. Get up, go to the shuttleport and get on the next flight up to House Lovejoy’s freighter docks. No, take the beanstalk. That way Salli can’t follow for the three days it’ll take to get to the transfer station. Get away before she can do anything else foolish to defend you. Get up.

But her arms remained firmly around her legs, locking her in place as she rocked back and forth in her seat. Because Salli coming in crying and/or furious was a Salli who needed her. And she could not for the life of her imagine a life that wasn’t in the service of someone, if not the Red Vixen, then Salli, or before that Bloody Margo. The alternative, independence, was quietly terrifying. I need to serve… someone.

She blinked once, looking at the thought in a new light. I need to serve.

I’m not a Commoner, I’m Service caste

Just like the rest of my family.

( Service, consent, futures )

This is actually a reply I gave to siderea in a previous post, when she asked how the Foxen healthcare system actually. My reply was sufficiently long that I figured I may as well re-post it separately.

***

It follows the class system actually:

1. Nobles: Pay for their own healthcare. They have the money for it. In general they are the only ones with the monetary resources to pay for the expense of full cellular regeneration, though some very wealthy commoners can as well.

2. Military: Generally paid for by their work unit. Combat troops get it as part of their duty to the planetary government (obviously). Non-combat units like Librarians or Civil Protection get the equivalent of an employee health plan (usually part of the system in #3, but not always).

3. Commoners: Very wealthy commoners pay for their own healthcare. The vast majority of them however use what we'd recognize as a One Payer healthcare system. Their taxes support part of it, and the rest is directly paid for by the Noble of their district. How much the Noble in question is willing to provide is at their discretion. However, there are legal minimums, and Nobles who try to be parsimonious tend to attract the negative attention of both their peers and the Commoner press.

Generally they attempt to provide more than is legally expected as a matter of course. The teachings of the Mother Goddess are very strong on charity, and while worship of the Mother is usually conducted at the household level (the female head of the family being that family's priestess) Commoners are considered part of the Noble's familial responsibility, and skimping on proper healthcare for one's family is Just Not Done.

As a side note, this is also why you rarely see homeless Foxen on the streets of the homeworld or Foxen colonies. If a Noble starts letting their commoners fall through the safety net like that, they start getting lots of flak from all corners (including members of their own family who think they might be able to do a better job).

Gerwart uses another variation of the One Payer system, but supported exclusively through citizen taxes. Offworlder Foxen either use the local system in their area, or are supported by a slightly complicated system of vouchers provided by their noble to pay for local healthcare.