Have you ever been self-employed, and tried to justify not having health insurance? Unfortunately many freelancers and micro-business owners don’t have any form of health insurance. They are living on a wing and a prayer that nothing major happens to them. If you don’t have health insurance, and you think you can justify not having any, I hope you will change your mind after I tell you a true story about two friends who had children get hurt. Neither friend could afford health coverage. The names in quotations in the following paragraphs are not my friend’s real names. I have changed them for their right to privacy. If you don’t think you really need health insurance read on:
One of my best friends, “Alice,” is a nurse. She is an agency nurse, just as I used to be. (When you work for an agency, you are not an employee; you are an independent contractor.) Alice’s son, “Jason,” went swimming a couple of summers ago. Frolicking around, her 17 year old son took a flying leap off the rope into the brook. Little did he know when he let go of the rope he would get stuck in a sandbar and break his leg. The poor guy hit in the shallow water and spun like a corkscrew. He broke his leg in 3 places. The worst part for Jason was that he had to suffer several days before he could have surgery to set his leg, because his mom had no insurance. Jason finally got the operation he needed, only because his mom got him into a hospital in Augusta that will treat indigent people.
If it had not been for the medical center in Augusta, GA, Jason might never have gotten his broken leg fixed. We don’t have free health care here in the United States, so it is imperative, if you have children to have health insurance. You never know what could happen. You could have a car wreck that leaves you with hardware sticking out of your flesh holding your bones together.
Another friend of mine, “Julie” is a medical transcriptionist. She does not carry insurance either, because she doesn’t make enough in her micro-business to pay the premiums. Her daughter, “Anne,” spent the night over at her girlfriend’s house. Anne and her friend “Sara” get the bright idea to jump off a 12-foot balcony at Sara’s house. They proceed to couch pillows down on the floor and then they climb the stairs to the balcony. Sara jumps first and she is fine. Sara is only about 60 pounds, because she is only 8. Anne, on the other hand, is 13 and a little on the heavy side.
After Sara made a flying leap and landed in the soft pillows and lived to laugh about it, Anne makes her flying leap. She hits ankle first like a load of bricks. She broke every bone in her foot. Sara’s mom knew nothing about this because she was working in her office at the other end of their house. Sara’s mom came running when she heard the screaming.
Anne’s mom, Julie, didn’t have health insurance either, but she had one advantage that Jason’s mom, Alice, didn’t have. Julie’s daughter was covered by Medicaid, which is a state funded health insurance. Anne had surgery right away. She had all kinds of hardware sticking out of her feet. She was in a wheelchair for almost a year. Thanks to the care that she got she can walk normally now.
It’s really sad that there are people who don’t have access to medical care simply because they don’t have the money to pay for the health insurance premium. In our country, access to health care is not a basic human right. You have to pay for it. If you are admitted to the ER the doctor has to see you. You will not be turned away, but you will only get treatment for that visit. You’ll get charged thousands of dollars for that visit also. If you can’t pay, don’t worry. You’ll just be sent bill after bill and when you can’t pay them your account be sent to a collection agency. When time goes by, and you don’t pay the collector, the collection’s department can take you to court to sue you. It’s a sad state of affairs when you can’t get health care when you need it most.
As a self-employed person, I would suggest checking with the Chamber of Commerce in the county in which you live. The Chamber of Commerce may be able to advise you which groups to join to get affordable health insurance. Sixty percent of self-employed people don’t have any form of health insurance. You really cannot afford to be without it. There is a group called NASE (National Association for the Self-employed) that is the largest resource for self-employed people.
Sources:
Personal knowledge,
And
http://news.nase.org/nase_about.asp
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/index/health/healthcov.htm
