Who has stayed in a job just for health coverage?

[katinmn]

This has been the hardest thing to deal with when considering whether to leave a job or stay and suffer. I have twice took the risk and left jobs to go on and do something more challenging. Both times I lived without health coverage for some months (and fortunately stayed healthy).

I think that the health system in the U.S. keeps us obediant slaves to the corporate interests that run the government and control the media, and limit our ability to affect change within our workplaces.

In 2000 I interviewed a general MD, a family practitioner, in Minneapolis who had dropped out of the insurance game as well as Medicare, and operated a straight pay as you go clinic.

I want to do a follow up and am wondering if anyone on DU has experience with any such clinics. Thanks.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I got married for health coverage.

Good thing I'm not gay in today's medieval political environment......

[katinmn]

4. Insurance as a dowry.

I can buy that.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. OK, we were engaged, but the insurance part moved the date up....

[Warpy]

2. I was denied a staff job at my last hospital

because my health problems might have cost them money.

I'm a nurse. I lost my health insurance in 1987.

[katinmn]

3. Unbelieveable

So you must pay everything out of your pocket.

I'm always thinking about Hillary's attempt to reform the health care insurance system and how they launched that massive attack.

Would love to see her get a chance to take it on again from a position of power.

[Nikia]

6. Pretty much

I feel that I cannot accept another job unless it pays significantly more than my current job so that I can afford outside insurance or COBRA or out of pocket expenses until I would be under the new jobs insurance plan or the rare job which starts benefits immediately instead of 3-6 months later. Since everything seems to be HMOS and PPO around here, even doctor visits without the preferred insurance are ridiculously expensive. I am unhappy with my current position and have been for some time but the only jobs that I seem to be able to get are those where I'd be making less without health insurance. I have been chronically ill lately and worry about that as well.

[MountainLaurel]

7. A former coworker

Had been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer in her 20s (probably related to childhood exposure to industrial fertilizers and pesticides, but that's another story). She stays where she is because the job allows her a flex schedule (she commutes 70 miles each way) and because she probably couldn't get insurance elsewhere, and she has an elementary-age daughter to take care of.

[Kat45]

8. For 16 years--until I got laid off.

I wanted to leave to do freelance writing, but because of insurance, I had to keeep the job and keep the writing on the side.

Then I had a grant-funded job for a couple of years. After that ended, the only job I could find was part-time. I like the job, and wish I could combine it with another PT job, but unfortunately my cobra runs out in March. I'm getting nervous about finding something with insurance before March. I'm not making much money, but I am (fortunately) getting by. But I'm a lot more terrified of having no insurance than of having little money. That's a sad state of affairs in our country, eh?

[katinmn]

14. Yes.

It was the terror of being without health insurance that kept me in a job long past the time I wanted to leave. It does feel like being a prisoner, doesn't it?

But I left anyway to pursue my goal, then after two years (against my intention) landed in a job for four years with ok health coverage. That job turned into a f***** up mess and I just left it yesterday after giving 3 weeks' notice. I've saved enough to keep myself going until spring even if I don't make any money. But insurance does weigh heavy on my mind. Cobra? It will cost me close to $800 a month.

Now I'm researching the alternatives to traditional health care. There are some things I've found that I'll be posting soon.

Thanks for the feedback everybody!

[Danmel]

9. I sure did

When my daughter was born I stayed in the job I had even though it had a 2 i/2 hour a day commute because the company my husband was working for was on it's last legs and we needed my health coverage. When she was 7 months old, he was laid off and was out of work for almost four months before he could find another job. (This was during the reign of Bush the First). When he did get another job, the health insurance didn't kick in until 6 months in, so I continued working there for another year or so, until I was able to find something three days a week, 20 minutes from home which was much better with a baby to care for.

[Horse with no Name]

10. I saw some interesting information

on Simple Care--it sounds like the wave of the future.

www.simplecare.com

Looks to be very interesting

[Dropkick]

11. I currently am doing just that

While I do not hate my current job, I know that I would be much happier and more fulfilled someplace else. Why do I stay where I am? Health insurance. Unfortunately, my current job offers some of the best coverage in my city, and DEFINITELY offers better coverage than ANY other employer in my field could possibly hope to offer.

I am currently at the end of my 1st year of post-treatment surveillance after a cancer diagnosis. At the end of 5 years, if the cancer does not come back, I will have seen my oncologist 17 times. There is no way in hell I would EVER be able to afford to pay for this out-of-pocket, as each visit costs anywhere from $350-$1500, depending on if extra labwork is needed.

I also have an almost 4 year-old daughter, and I am not willing to compromise her health for my happiness.

So I am stuck, with no end in sight for at least the next four years.

Also, my insurance just stopped covering my $80/month allergy prescription (in fact, they only cover two allergy meds at this point, flonase and allegra). Even though I have tried all others, am getting allergy shots, and this is my allergists drug of choice for me (because it is the only on that is effective), they will not cover this. I and my allergist have been fighting with them over this for tha last 5 months, to no avail. I don't even want it completely covered, just covered as a third tier as it was before, so I can pay $40 instead of $80.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. I'm in that situation right now.

n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

13. In the worst way

I've been without health insurance for about four years; work has been quite sparse, too.

I started out with some "medical issues" that have turned into for-real problems. To the point that I need treatment for severe pain, and testing to determine whether I have a return visit from a tumor, and to see if I've developed Crohn's Disease.

In fact, things have been moving so quickly, I've had to apply for Social Security (or is it SSI?) and was strongly urged to sign up for Welfare until the SS benefits kick in.

So I'm living proof of it -- small problems can and do turn into big problems when there is no way to take care of them. I wonder how much money it will require to fix me up if I do have a major problem, and compare that to the far smaller amount it would have cost to deal with it when it was only a nagging annoyance.

Hopefully, the problems will not be too severe after all. Pain can be controlled far more easily than Crohn's disease or aggressive granulomata. But at this point, I have zero patience for the "free-enterprisers" of medicine.

--p!

[Dear Maggie]

15. Tumors? Crohn's disease?

These can be part of what happens with exposure to 2-butoxyethanol. Do you also have fatigue? ... of unknown cause?

This chemical is one of the exposures of the 'gulf war vets' but also many in the general population, too

[kineneb]

16. have job w/o insurance

I work in a small office (I am the staff) which has no benefits. We spent down our assets to qualify for CMSP (like MediCal for people w/o children). I can get private insurance but Hubby has insulin-dependent diabetes and no one will give him insurance. So because of the income cap, I wind up working fewer hours so our "share of cost" to the state is lower. What incentive do I have to work harder or more hours?? We would loose coverage! I am looking for something with benefits, but in rural Calif., those jobs are hard to find.

I pretend to work, and they pretend to pay me.- old Soviet line