how NOT to make it

My wonderful tenant, Carsten, is also a type I diabetic and posed a question that always gets me fired up. Below is the conversation.

Hey Mike,
quick question for you.  Since you are diabetic and don’t work for ‘the man’, how are you able to get health insurance?  My new position has a really crappy medical plan and I wanted to get my own health insurance, but, of course, I will be declined across the board due to this wonderful pre-existing condition.  I might elect to take COBRA for 18 months, but I am just curious what other options are out there (there is also the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, but since you don’t live in Oregon, wondering how you are able to get insurance).

-c

My reply:

So dude.  The health insurance issue is the primary thing that obstructs us from doing what we really want to do.
Ugh, don’t get me started.  Too late…. here goes:

When I was in Oregon, I did two things: 1. I did the Ore Med Ins Pool (and yeah, it sucked… $350/mo. and no coverage for the first 6 months… sucked BALLS). then 2. got a “full-time” freelance gig with one client and paid them to be put on their plan. Same deal tho… $300/mo. and when I made a claim, the small company’s insurance went up 30%.

At that point, I had enough income (luckily) thru some acting work that I “qualified” for my guild’s (SAG) health plan ($600/yr good coverage), only to be bumped off two years later when I didn’t earn enough money, but then went to the OTHER guild’s (AFTRA) plan where I did earn just enough for that plan ($1200/yr… so-so coverage)… but come September, I have no idea if coverage will continue at all.

It’s a fucked system all around.

Oh, and don’t do Cobra unless it’s actually affordable.

Options….

– Check into your Girlfriend’s plan

– Check out http://www.freelancersunion.org

– Check with a client that you have a great relationship with

– Do the OMIP thing

– Or direct negotiate with your doctor(s), look into low-cost/donated supplies, and if you get seriously hurt, just place yourself in your car and hit a telephone pole since your car insurance has some health coverage.

– Or (and surprisingly the most realistic option) you and me get a team of lawyers and sue 5 major medial insurers for creating a hostile, unfairly compensated workplace thru the lack of reasonable health care coverage for self-employed individuals. Then just use the settlement money to pay for the $950/mo. plans they offer us diabetics.

At least that’s my plan.

So… any lawyers interested in a class-action?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 14:56 and is filed under Health and 'da Beties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.