Friday, September 11, 2009
Do Health Insurance and Self-employment Mix?
Web Worker Daily: "In my Labor Day post, I talked about the importance of web workers advocating for ourselves, and why it is necessary. One of the topics for advocacy that is on everyone’s mind right now (at least in the U.S.) is healthcare, or more particularly health insurance. This topic is of special interest to the segment of web workers who are self-employed or work freelance."
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Pittsburgh is a city thriving with performing arts, some of them good and some we'd rather forget. However, with the rise of national tours and special events passing through the city this year it's proof that the arts is thriving and in demand here. New York and Chicago may be the thriving metropolises of theatre but with our Festival of Firsts and array of resident theatres we are putting ourselves on the map and it's great to see Pittsburgh making something more of themselves and proving they can succeed. I only hope the city capitalizes on it instead of twiddling their thumbs thinking the job is done so let it ride.
I think this article touches on some critical issues going on in the U.S. today. President Obama has been talking in cities around the country about how we can't have a health care system that drops people when they need their health insurance. Its ridiculous to pay an insurance provider a premium for an "if you need it situation" only to be dropped WHEN you need it. Also, for people who are self-employed or who freelance, they don't have the bargaining power with insurance companies,that big companies do. Their needs to be an affordable single-payer option and/or the option for someone to buy into a larger group with other individual such that they would,together, have bargaining power with private insurers in this country. Also,without competition their is no real motivation to lower prices. The only real competition to insurance companies as a whole would be a government provided, self-funding, public plan. One that would not be paid for by tax dollars, but rather would be paid for by cutting costs in the current system. Fortunately for us there is such a plan proposed it just needs to be passed in both houses and signed into law. Hopefully, by the time we,the college students, are too old to be covered by our parents insurance, we will not have to worry about affording health insurance.
The way health care insurance companies make money seems like a scam: they take your money so they can pay for your medical care when you need it, but then they drop your coverage when you actually need them to pay. An example of how they don't really care about people's health (only their money) is how they won't pay for preventative treatment, and then make a fuss about having to pay for a condition that would come up with less probability if they had paid for the preventative treatment. Having a system where the insurance is run by the government or someone who cares about people's health will really help everyone out.
Health care is a topic that I just can't leave alone. I'm from Massachusetts, and we have universal health care, and as the article said, no medical underwritting. If not for that, I probably wouldn't have insurance right now. I have a laundry list of "pre-existing conditions" and would probably have to pay an exorbitantly high fee to have insurance. I'm REALLY hoping the Obama health care bill gets passed, or I'm not sure what I'll have to do if I'm ever self-employed. It always seems absurd to me that the people who need insurance the most, are the ones left out in the cold. In California, if you have juvenile diabetes, you can be excluded from most insurance plans, and have to pay in excess of $1000 per MONTH. For someone with diabetes, not having insurance (and thus insulin) is NOT an option, but if you can't afford to pay $12000 per year, there isn't much you can do.
We NEED universal health care, or at least a law against medical underwriting. Kids suffering from diabetes shouldn't have to end up in the ER in diabetic shock because they couldn't afford insulin, and if you go to the ER, you don't have to pay for it.
While I'm still really hoping for a nationalized option, I think there are some good points here for the interim, or in case of failure. The fact of the matter is that the insurance companies are gigantic, and anything we can do to get some leverage against them is important. The idea of signing on with a larger group that collectively bargains for a policy seems like a very good first step, but if obviously not nearly enough. Still, for the jobs most of us will be looking at for a while, it will likely be a valuable option. To be uninsured in this industry kinda seems like asking for it.
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