Freedom to leave a job

I want to be crystal clear here in my argument.  I have had bipolar disorder since I was 17; which the math works out to 14 years of my life I’ve had this illness.  Bipolar disorder is a chronic illness; meaning I will never get over it, contrary to what some faith healers may believe.  In a couple weeks I get to teach at youth group on the passage in 2 Corinthians where it talks about the thorn in the side and how God’s strength is showed through our weaknesses.  Some people in the faith community don’t know how to treat chronic illness.  Much like Job’s friends in the Old Testament, they see it as a result of sinful living.

Anyway, any health insurance company that takes me on as a customer is necessarily going to lose money on me.  They simply have to with the way the current system is set up.  Drug companies charge way too much for drugs, even generics like I’m on; and so as a result someone has to pay.  Since I want to try some stuff on my own and want to get private insurance, it simply doesn’t make economical sense for a health insurance company to take me on as a patient.

I had lunch with a dear friend today and as we were discussing this I made the off-hand comment that I wondered how many people were in jobs they despised because of the health care that they were afforded.  I wonder how many people want to, even long to take a huge risk and start a business but simply can’t leave their current job because of health care.  If you have a family to provide for all the more reason to not take a risk, start a business and help the economy turn around.  It’s better to play it safe so your kids can be covered by your health insurance plan.

Again, we’re talking about freedom, true freedom here.  In our high ambition to pay as little taxes as possible, we have made it to where people stay in awful jobs just for the health care as opposed to branching out and trying something new.  This country was built on an entrepreneurial spirit and we are largely ignoring that impulse by requiring our healthcare to be wrapped up with our employment. 

It would have to be monitored for abuses, just like everything should be.  There would have to be independent companies who did audits to make sure money was being spent wisely.  There has to be a better way than what we have currently, no one can argue that.  It’s just a matter of how we go about doing so.