Here’s the story of yet another writer with no health insurance who needs help. I don’t know him, but I feel for him. (If you’re one of the lucky people who has a Real Job and a steady income, do please think about donating, even if it’s just $25.)
Health insurance for the self-employed is brutally expensive. Kelley and I, for example, pay about $900 a month, just for the premium. It doesn’t cover dental, optical is minimal, and services such as physical therapy (which I need on a regular basis) are severely limited. Plus, the co-pays for everything are high. In other words, our health costs are many thousands of dollars a year, probably more than our mortgage. But, hey, at least we have health insurance. We’re lucky.
It blows me away that a country as rich as this refuses to provide for its citizens. There are many things about the US that I like–I chose to live here, after all–but its care, or lack thereof, for its people isn’t one of them.
A stranger to these shores might be forgiven for thinking the American legislature, and therefore the people who vote them in, are evil or stupid or heartless. Healthcare could be fixed; everyone knows this. Every knows how to begin–a public option–but the special interests simply won’t allow it. So is it because they’re stupid, or evil, or heartless, or, shockingly, all of the above? I don’t know. But until we figure it out, all that stands between many writers and health-costs disaster is the kindness of strangers. So I hope you will be kind.
I worry, frankly, that one day I might be in this position: holding out my hand and smiling hard. Today isn’t that day. But the possibility exists, right here in the richest country on earth.
Nicola Griffith 
Last year my insurance and taxes added up to more than every other expense I had, combined — and I never set foot in the doctor's office.
I think probably the task of health care reform is so overwhelming and fraught with political landmines that it may never be addressed.
When I was self employed I had full health care coverage for $100 a month with minimum co-pays. People have to learn how to look around and not take the first ad they see in the yellow pages and that goes double for NY Times best selling authors.
Anonymous –
Your comment is more than a little callous.
Health care coverage availability varies from state-to-state, according to the health care providers in each state. If you're lucky you can join a large group like the Freelancers Union in NYC. However, there are income minimum requirements for each of those plans and they're still quite expensive. And you're not taking into account the fact that event THOSE plans won't accept someone with pre-existing conditions.
And, ironically, just being a NYT-bestselling author doesn't mean you're a millionaire. It doesn't even mean you earn five figures a year on your writing.
As a freelancer myself I have been unable to find a healthcare plan where I live for under $400 a month. Considering that is more than half my current monthly income, it's not a luxury I can afford.
Maybe anonymous was 18 at the time. Yes, I agree rather callous.
I've been self employed for over 20 years. For a long time I did without insurance, but now that I'm older I've seen enough that I'm no longer willing to take the chance. And well, I had a girlfriend who made it pretty much an ultimatum at one point. Now I pay that before I pay other important bills. I have major medical ($5000 deductible and 20% hospital co-pay) and it costs me about $235/month. I'm over 45. I had no pre-existing conditions. It's a PPO plan – Blue Cross. Of course the deductible and the co-pay would kill me. But I would survive.
I've seen the result of cheap insurance, and I don't want it for me or anyone else I care about. They don't pay for good care.
That was an interesting article – lots of heated comments. I think the middle class – or upper middle class and higher does not want public health care. They don't want it because they believe (wrong or right) it means they will get lousy care and have to wait a long time to get that lousy treatment. And I think that is the 'public opinion' that politicians listen to most. They contribute most to campaigns. The other thing I hear around here (CA) all of the time is worry about illegal aliens over-burdening the system and costing tax dollars. Combine that with the drug companies and hospital corps. and you have a losing proposition.
I almost missed the way to donate to Allston on that fact.org page – there is paypal info at the bottom. They should re-format that page.
health insurance is the only reason i haven't quit my job. i am over 50, physically fit, have a congenital heart thing that has never changed my life, have back pain from doing too many sports throughout my life (ahhh the irony of being physically fit), not married to a spouse who can support me…and every day i worry that this is the thing that could break me…TBTGOGGI (there but the grace of god go i…i don't believe in god but the idea of the phrase makes sense to me). and what about all the things we are born with or end up with that we have no control over?…parkinsons, ms, alzheimers, arthritis, cancer, even bunions…sheesh…
after hollywood stars, doctors are the next celebrities. they have been trained in medical school to think of themselves as the elite, the untouchables. if the media is correct in saying that change in the system must come from the docs then i think that we're not going to get very far right now. they all take care of each other, but what about the rest of us who have no connections?
so where do we start? tell me. we can donate to the person you mentioned…but it will never be enough…like a pyramid scheme…
perhaps we should start by writing to our state representatives and then to our senators. i vowed that i would do that after my last trip to DC with my students last fall…but i haven't…
so i promise to start by writing to my representative by the end of this week and i hope all of the readers of “ask nicola” will do the same…
thanks nicola…
“no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”
anonymous @ 6:10, way to go with the empathy. Do you realise you just called me stupid (or possibly lazy) on my own blog? If you don't realise that, it's time to go away and grow a brain.
Wow, and here I was, bitching about having to pay about 165 dollars a month (120 euros). And because I'm “poor” (I'm not, but I'm a student and don't have lot of income), I get about 65 dollars a month in government aid for health insurance costs, so that puts it at only about 100 dollars a month. That's including full dental (for up to $1200 in dental costs a year).
(Living in the Netherlands by the way)
Health care cost and coverage is one of those Gordian knot issues, especially when you add in gay, not living in New England or Iowa or… + prefers alternative health care (aka acupuncture)…I hate that it's one of those will it affect my life clouds on the horizon, which means it already has.
And there seem to be so many more of these stories every day…a friend of mine is spreading the word about John Ostrander, a comic book writer trying to save his sight. Economics and its effect on the arts + artists + the poor + the ill + …did I mention Gordian Knot? Oy. One of those problems that can't be solved with a sword.
My heart goes out to Aaron Allston and everyone who's self-employed and has to make those hard decisions. If I was remaking this country, the healthcare situation is the thing I would change first.
Having insurance is better than not having it, no question. But it also seems like health insurance companies are coming up with ways to call a thing “insurance” when it doesn't really make medical care affordable at all — high deductables, high co-pays, plans that only cover 70% or 80% of costs. That's fine if you're healthy, but if you actually need medical care, that 20% can break you.
My best friend has employer-sponsored insurance, technically. She has major heart problems, and if she did everything the doctors want her to, half her income would go to paying her share of medical care.
I think about this stuff, and I am really not proud to be an American.