Before you jump to any conclusions, I don't have cancer (at least not any that I'm aware of). But I did spend the large part of the day shopping on line for health insurance, a painful process in and of itself.
Before you jump to any conclusions, I'm not saying that shopping on line for health insurance is even remotely as difficult as having cancer. I learned today that an acquaintance of mine passed away on December 30 from until recently undetected cervical cancer. I recognize that her plight was far worse than mine, to understate things quite a bit.
But part of being self employed is the requirement to also provide your own benefits, including health care (although in most of the civilized world, health care is a right, not a benefit). Forms, paper work, questions about every medication prescribed to you over the past 5 years, and I'm healthy. I can only imagine what someone with a dreaded "pre-existing condition" must have to go through.
I finally filled out and submitted an application for coverage that meets the minimum level of protection I can accept and the maximum amount I think I can afford, although I don't really know what my earnings for this year are going to be. But if 2012 stays as busy as the last month of 2011, I might be able to buy my own personal interrupting doctor.
One more thing: okay, so shopping on line for health insurance and committing to yet still another several-hundred-a-moth obligation wasn't fun. But working from home, answering to clients and not bosses, and being in charge of your own livelihood still beats having company-provided insurance.
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