Contract Worker - Freelancing Experiences

What’s More Important Than Paying Projects

by Rico on July 31st, 2008

Kirsten sums it up nicely: What’s Worse That Not Having a Job? Not Having Health Insurance. As she starts:

According to a HealthDay article from June of this year, the number of uninsured and underinsured American adults has increased 60% from 2003 to 2007, climbing from 16 million to more than 25 million people.

Maintaining health insurance is not just the cost of doing business. In a world full of risk and uncertainty, it’s a necessity. Paying for insurance provides a reasonable degree of protection against the unforeseen. Both for injuries that affect your ability to make a living, or even worse, career-ending situations.

The lack of health insurance should be particularly scary for freelancers, who lack the normal support systems employers and corporations offer. In other words, contract workers themselves are responsible for their own health insurance. Unlike companies who have specialists taking care of these matters for their employees, freelancers need to shop around for insurance that offers the best value. Then they have to make sure the premiums are paid on time; no automatic deduction from your salary here!

In other words, freelancers have all the power, but at a cost.

Share This

Related Stories

• What’s More Important than Creativity
• Why Porn May Help You Improve as a Freelancer
• What Makes One Project More Urgent Than the Other
• Making Sure the Price is Right
• Avoid Tax Problems Now

POSTED IN: Freelance Finances