Health coverage -- or lack of it

[Guest guest]

Friends, when I was laid off in July, I lost my health coverage. How can I deal

with this? Getting meds has been no problem, thanks to Novartis. My doctor is

willing to see me " a couple of times a year " at no cost. But the lab costs --

yow! I've been feeling bad lately -- sleeping four and five hours a day some

days, and I have a lot of pain in my legs (mostly my shins). Normally, given

those symptoms, I would just drive over to his office and get a blood screening.

Now I'm lost in space.

Trying to get insurance is forget about it. It used to be possible to get

" association " coverage. The Builders Association, Media Alliance, any number of

professional associations representing tens of thousands of free-lance workers

got good group coverage. But that ended abruptly in 2006 in many states

including California, stranding those who are not full-time employees of a

business.

I'm stumped.

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