Small business and healthcare
The Prez is pushing hard for a decision on the healthcare bill, so maybe now is a good time to turn our attention to the small matter of small business and health insurance. It’s a subject I approach with suspended breath because I’m likely to explode at any second. Insurance grounds – or better said, enslaves us in paranoia and red tape, and it destroys the economy. But we need not toss around such smoldering hot coals. We just won’t go there.
Instead, we’ll look at a couple realities that I know for sure. I am currently without health insurance. I’m building my business, and I have a way to go yet before I can afford the $800+ per month that health insurance costs today. Admittedly, I’m 56 years old, and even though life will likely keep me running for another 30 years at least, insurance is more expensive for someone my age, and my premiums will increase markedly in 4 years, on my 60th birthday. At least, that’s what happened with my partner, who just turned 60; his insurance increased suddenly from $500 to $800.
Now, here’s a little story. Last fall, I caught a cold and it turned into the flu. I was having trouble breathing. I sought help at the local hospital emergency room, and a week later went to a clinic (since the emergency room treatment was a disaster). With prescriptions, these two visits cost me just under $1,000.
I asked to be excused from some of the charges, but quickly saw that the monolith of the hospital billing department was impenetrable. Wincing, I put the charges on my credit card. I’m still paying for that cold.
In my business, I’m embodying the best of what I can offer to the world. I am much like my ideal clients, realizing livelihood through the expression of their inborn gifts. This is surely an optimal economy; one in which the citizens work at the very top of their skills.
If the infrastructure – including such things as health insurance (at least basic protection from abandonment) – can’t support us at this level of being, though, we have a problem. Does it mean I should regress to work that does not make use of my best talents, in order to afford health insurance? We all know someone (maybe ourselves) who holds a job primarily in order to get the health insurance. Isn’t this a convoluted deception and paradoxically unhealthy way to live? Surely there’s a better solution.
