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Subject:Re: Contracting (& health insurance) From:Michelle Law <shell -at- CS -dot- UTK -dot- EDU> Date:Fri, 19 Sep 1997 16:55:41 -0400
> > >How do contractors manage health insurance?
> > >
> Group plans offered by various affinity groups are available, or I can
> buy an individual policy from most carriers these days at reasonable
> rates.
>
Hm, my experience with getting health insurance as a self-employed
contractor was not so rosy. This was 5 years ago, but not much has
improved in the US health insurance racket (er, market) since then.
Story: 5 years ago I start freelancing as a TW. I go one month without
health insurance while I carefully choose a policy. I send in my first
quarterly premium payment. Six weeks later I find out I'm pregnant (oops!).
So does the insurance company apparently, because a month later I get a
refund check in the mail and a nicely worded letter saying they were
denying coverage due to my "preexisting condition". Oh dear. I call
my state's Dept of Insurance, what to do? Turns out I live in a state
in which this is perfectly legal, even though they had already cashed
my check (if you or I cash someone's check, we've implicitly agreed to
a contract). Furthermore, my state's high-risk pool won't accept my
particular "preexisting condition" either! If I had had cancer or AIDS,
I could've gotten on the state's (very expensive) plan. Direct quote
from Dept of Insurance: "Nobody will touch you as long as you're pregnant".
Moral of the Story: If you're doing things that can possibly, remotely,
by some weird twist of fate, get you pregnant and you're the one responsible
for health coverage, check with your state dept of insurance before you
start contracting and trying to get health insurance. Some (most?) states
don't let insurance companies deny coverage to pregnant women.
I'd hate for anyone to take on the debt load we had to because of this
"mistake". We had to self-pay the prenatal care and births. A year later
we were *this* close to declaring bankruptcy because of the medical bills.
See, the gods were smiling on us (okay, make that rolling around on the
floor *laughing* at us) because I had twins, born early as twins are
wont to do, needing intensive care afterwards, and one ended up with
all the medical complications that go along with having cerebral palsy
as well.
Neither I nor my husband dare contract now--because no health insurance
policy for self-employed persons covers the kind of long-term rehab our
son needs. Not even the ones tied to professional groups.
Contractors beware!
Michelle Law
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