When you visit our dental offices, your care is our top priority. Dr. Geoffrey Berg and his entire team are dedicated to providing you with the personalized, professional care you expect.

http://mid-valleydental.com/

* Membership in COSE, the “Council Of Smaller Enterprises” in Cleveland.
* Which qualifies my one-person company for a variety of health insurance plans.
* Of which I’m going with the comprehensive, all-singing, all-dancing plan. With a $4,000 annual deductible.
* Which is really cheap, because I am (currently) The Healthiest Man in the World.
* Covering the $4,000 deductible, and any non-covered costs, with a Health Savings Account that I pay into every now and then. And get the tax deduction for.

This is super-affordable for me, but that’s largely because I hardly ever use health care services and have no pre-existing conditions.

I would be happy to join a single-payer system like Canada’s. The “insurance mandate” concept underlying the Baucus bill, on the other hand, is ridiculous: People can’t afford insurance, so you’re going to pass a law requiring them to have insurance? How on earth would that help?
.-= Mark W. “Extra Crispy” Schumann´s last blog ..Programming with Access? Know this about JOIN. =-.

I remember when Kevin of Barenaked Ladies was fighting Leukemia. I’ll never forget when he said that without the health care he had available to him as a Canadian citizen, he would have been dead before he started fighting. Or something like that. Very paraphrased, but you get the point. I wasn’t jealous of his cancer, but the solution? Oh yeah.

@Libby Having been in the military, I can appreciate things just being “covered.” I was never worried about any illnesses or injuries because I (and Jenni) would just be taken care of. Admittedly the care wasn’t always great, but the idea of it being there was a huge relief.

Yes, Oregon still seems to have an issue with freelancers and groups when it comes to insurance.

That’s why I feel that it’s so important to create solutions that don’t involve health insurance at all. I mean, when you really think about it, what do they provide anymore?

@Tara Wow, you should really talk to @littletomato (Jenni, my wife). We birthed our last baby at home (in an apartment). We had a midwife (plus her assistant) and they were amazing. Granted, she had no complications leading up to the birth (aside from the possibility of twins), but we were all ready to rush to a hospital in case of an emergency (I believe she had someone on standby? Memory is cloudy).

Anyway, we paid for the midwifery services out of pocket. There were no hospitals, doctors, insurance cards, etc…. We paid under $3,000 for everything (equipment, prenatal care, registration, blood tests, doppler).

I write about this in some detail because even though home births don’t work for everyone, we had a great, healthy experience. It’s just an idea of an alternative solution that doesn’t involve the red tape.

If I remember correctly (do correct me if I’m wrong, SFP), but Oregon was much less friendly, as a state, to small businesses across the board. One thing I remember reading on AIGA.com was that Oregon is one of a handful of states that won’t consider freelancers for group coverage (even if several banded together). Something like that. I haven’t had enough coffee to have the terminology correct. They also taxed me on every little thing I owned, which made me grumble loudly.

Anyway, I went to a meeting here in CO where there were a couple attorneys lobbying for freelancers to be able to band together and get group coverage. They’d finally gotten the process to the point where CO said “if you can get X number of independents together, we’ll call it a ‘group’ and you can have insurance”. I was impressed with their efforts and there seemed to be a collective sigh within this freelancers’ group. Dental? Yep. Vision? Yep. I’ve heard of the healthcare provider? Yep. I can keep my firstborn and still make the premium? Yep. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the group.

My point is, we’re not the only ones who see and feel it, as freelancers (and that’s a good thing because I wouldn’t even know where to start to fix it). I was touched that this group of attorneys saw a problem that had nothing to do with them and attacked it with such force that they were actually shaking CO state laws. And they were making some serious ground. I think that’s probably the best anyone can do while the upper-ups argue about what to do.
.-= Libby Unwin´s last blog ..I Need This Scarf =-.

In my case, as a freelancer I bothered to buy extended medical, which would cover prescriptions or some elective surgeries, cuz knock on wood we’re also pretty healthy and it doesn’t make sense for us.

Good on ya for bringing the issue up.
.-= Tzaddi´s last blog ..Who uses WordPress? =-.

By the way, I really admire how you and the SECP (http://www.secppdx.com) are trying to come up with insurance options for your members. As self-employed creatives, it’s good to belong to organizations who are actively trying to take care of their people.

It’s interesting that most of the solutions we hear about are geared towards how to make insurance work better.

To me, that’s one-sided thinking. It’s not creative at all, and it’s not going to solve the actual problem.

Insurance should be dead.

We need to start from scratch, as painful as that may be. We need to just take some time to look at the very basic problem before we start talking about re-configuring the system that’s already in place and… um, not working.

Basic problem: People need good medical care. People need a way to pay for the medical care.

If we sent Congress home for a few months (go to your room!) and went to local communities to gather solutions, we wouldn’t simply be trying to find solutions that benefit insurance companies.

They shouldn’t benefit at all. In fact, if they’re not doing the job of helping people get the best medical care possible without going broke, then they’ve failed. They’re dinosaurs.

They’re GM. They’re Chrysler. They shouldn’t be helped for not doing their job.

A lot of people are very afraid of a government-run health care plan. I don’t blame them, it sounds scary when you think about how our government operates sometimes. The IRS comes to mind.

But putting aside our big fears for a moment, what would it look like if our government covered 70% of our medical expenses? No insurance, no deductibles, no one choosing your provider, no one “plan,” everyone gets the same 70%, regardless of income or ability to pay. 70%, covered. Private medicine.

No matter what our political views, can we just consider things like that without going apeshit because our political party doesn’t agree?

Disclaimer: I did not vote for Obama. That doesn’t mean I can’t think outside my vote to get this thing fixed.

The solution is going to come from people like us who will start creating ideas, getting them out there, and taking on the problem without waiting for Congress to come up with a solution strictly for their lobbyists.

Ideas? Crazy? Weird? Good? Solutions, anyone?

I so totally agree – it’s a nightmare. I had to laugh out loud a few weeks ago when some politician claimed that he had the solution to the ‘public’ plan that Obama’s trying to get out there. “We’ll just fine the people who don’t have health care insurance”. Well, that’ll make it more affordable and worth the money for those of us that can’t afford it, won’t it?

Honestly, I did a little survey last year of SECP members to see how they were handling their health care needs. My favorite (most tragic) response was a guy who went to the Pet store to get penicillin when he had an infection. Can you believe it? Here in the ‘most developed nation’ on Earth? People who have earned degrees and worked (and paid taxes) all their lives have to do that.

I shared my survey results with the Free Lancers Union who is in the trenches fighting for us solo business people. It’s sad to say, but we don’t even fit in the ‘small business’ lump when it comes to the conversation. So cheers to you making noise.

We all have to start making a lot of noise because we’re not being heard. Nice job, Sparky.

BTW: I handle my health care issues by praying a lot and ignoring all the funny noises.

:-)
Barbara