So, today is HUGE in the Bluest household. I’m ankling my corporate gig to go free-lance. It’s not that I’m tired of working full-time for ‘the man’ … even though my schedule is nuttier than Aunt Mavis’s pistachio brittle … or that my alleged ’superiors’ are still using Clearasil. And it doesn’t even have anything to do with that slim blade I discovered lodged between my shoulder blades the other day in the shower. Nope. Although it pains me to acknowledge that I could ever have anything in common with Trent Lott … his comment “it’s time to do something else” just rings true. But (of course there’s a “but” and it’s a big one!) there’s that pesky matter of health insurance. For now, there’s COBRA … but that’s going to set my family of four back more than a thousand bucks a month. Ouch! Could we get something cheaper? Not likely … my husband and I both have “pre-existing conditions” that would make it hard for us to qualify at a reasonable rate. And we’re not even into skydiving! Naturally, I’m voting for someone in ‘08 who has a plan to improve the system. I don’t think the government has to pick up my tab. But I’d sure like to see better, and more affordable options than are currently on the table. For now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I’m drinking a helluva lot of V-8. Cheers!
November 28, 2007 at 8:54 am
I have exactly the opposite problem. I had worked as a freelancer for quite a few years and, after COBRA, had an extremely hard time finding a carrier, even at an exorbitant monthly cost. Now that I’ve recently taken a full-time job, I still haven’t given up my own health insurance because it was so hard to obtain when I was much younger and what if the job doesn’t work out? However, now my premium has crept up to more than $300 a month for just me. It seems wrong to me that we shouldn’t be free to make career decisions without excessive hand-wringing about health insurance.
I’m not particularly advocating full-fledged government-controlled health care, but there are so many problems with the current system that I don’t see how it can sustain itself–or how the public will continue to accept it!
November 28, 2007 at 10:04 am
Congratulations on your decision! It’s a shame that people are tied to a regular job not because of love of the work, but because of the old ball and chain—medical insurance. I’m not sure what can be done about the situation, but the system definitely needs fixing. I rarely hear good things about the Canadian and British systems, so I’m thinking that government health care is not the answer either. Good luck with your new direction!
November 29, 2007 at 7:10 am
Amen, amen and amen!!!! I feel fortunate to be married to a retired schoolteacher and we are on his health insurance plan. Thanks to him, I was able to leave a job I didn’t enjoy but knew I’d have to stay ’til my dying days because of Health Insurance. And even then, I felt lucky to have the insurance…. I worry about my friend “Jane Doe” who has bi-polar disorder and is a very talented artist. She would sweep floors at most any company if they would give her health insurance because she can’t afford it on her own (and what a waste of her talent that would be!) Everywhere I look there is someone who either doesn’t have health insurance or is tied to a job simply because of that “benefit”. And then there are the children; and the friend of a friend who died of melanoma because his insurance wouldn’t cover a new drug that might have helped him, but he couldn’t afford on his own….like I said, it’s everywhere. I could go on and on. I don’t know the answer either, but whatever it is, it will require that reds and blues get together. There’s got to be a sit-down and hammering out of this issue. I’m just not sure it will happen in my lifetime……
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