“Joining While Ill” Is One of the Greatest Enemies of the Commune's Sustainability

The purpose of the Commune is to help people, and those who join while already ill are also people in need of help. So why must we strictly guard against them? Fundamentally, it is to uphold the authority of the rules and the system.

So why do the rules not allow joining while ill?

It is determined by the Commune's operating principle. On one hand, the essence of the Commune is that at any given stage the many help the few, which is what keeps each person's cost-sharing acceptable. On the other hand, the Commune must ensure the system is basically fair to everyone.

Joining while ill breaks this principle. It would sharply increase the number of aid recipients and encourage more ill people to join, so that within a few years each person's cost-sharing would become unbearable and thus unsustainable; on the other hand, it destroys fairness, discourages healthy people from joining, and sends the Commune into a vicious cycle that cannot be sustained.

The Commune is a zero-threshold scheme, which intensifies the tendency of certain groups to “join while ill,” since there is no loss or little loss.

This makes the problem even trickier to solve.

So on one hand we are strengthening review; on the other, we will keep exploring and introducing other measures to limit it.

We hope members understand this. Sustainability is the greatest responsibility, and only sustainability can help more people.

Note: the above concerns the situation of joining the healthy members' commune while ill. Recognizing that ill people also need mutual aid, the Commune has also established the “Cancer Patients Mutual Aid Commune” and the “Mild Illness Mutual Aid Commune,” which patients may choose to join. Be sure to join truthfully, or your benefits will be affected.