Posted On: December 8, 2005, 12:24 am CST

Posted By: Annie

It appears that there are a whole lot of us "sole proprietors" in the same boat. If you have a business consisting of more than one person, then you may have some luck with the SBSB (Small Business Services Bureau). You can visit their site at www.sbsb.com. Even Oxford Health Care has a great group rate for two or more!

I am a graphic designer and I have no one working with me. I've had my business for a little over fifteen years with medical coverage, but this year, I had to cancel my medical coverage through SBSB for myself and my husband. The costs for insurance went up over 37%. Sure you get it back at the end of the tax year, but you still need to cough it up before hand, along with your estimated taxes, sales taxes etc. I don't know about you but business is not what it used to be, account receivables "stink", businesses are leary about our current economy, we're not doing as well as the BUSH administration claims we are. But why should our government officials care? They are government employees WITH health coverage and other wonderful benefits that come from our hard earned money. I don't know about you, but I don't have "Uncle Sam" sitting holding my hand at 4:00 AM in the morning because I had to pull an all nighter for a client. But he still expects to "get his" regardless of how the money was made. We are being penalized for being Sole Proprietors. You'd think that collecting "self employment tax" in addition to your regular tax earnings would make the government feel somewhat obligated to get us some help, but it does not appear that way. I don't see anyone REALLY stepping up to the plate and doing anything to alleviate our woes. Give us ADVICE, don't just tell us that as of 2002 health insurance is more affordable for Sole Proprietors, gives us the NAMES of the Insurance Companies that offer lower rates to people like us with no ridiculous provisions!!!!!! It appears that one is almost better off not working and going on welfare instead. Why is it that the "lazy" people are getting rewarded? And YES I'm generalizing, I'm not saying ALL those on Welfare are lazy. Does anybody (inlcuding our government officials that promise us the world during elections) see how warped our society has become?

You would think that health insurance companies would be falling over themselves to insure us because we are a "low risk" group. We cannot afford to get sick and be out of work because that would mean the business would not run. It cannot run without US!

This is just an idea. What if we were to form a group exclusively for "Sole Proprietors"? I mean one man operations. This essentially would make us a "group". There is help for those peple with more than one person working for the same business as I mentioned before. If such an organization were formed would you join it? Let me know. If there are enough people that would join and I have an idea of how many, I would be willing to do the leg work and actually use this number as leverage to get insurance companies to GIVE US a discounted GROUP RATE based on the amount of members.

Let me know. In the mean time, if anyone does know of a health insurance company, I mean a "good one" with affordable rates, please DO let me know. Starting an organization such as the one I am proposing is going to take a little while.