The Story Thus Far

Once upon a time, I had employer-sponsored health insurance.

Then I became ambitious. I decided to go back to school, to get a Master's degree in Divinity. I wanted to spend time following God more intentionally than I had in my previous job. I knew that I could get COBRA when I left my place of employment, and also that there were options for university-sponsored health insurance with most seminaries (which, though the ones to which I applied were not part of the universities, had affiliations with local universities to allow for the universities to sponsor their students for health insurance).

So, for the past 3 years, I have been insured, first via COBRA, then via the university-sponsored health plan.

I finished school in May, and have been working part-time as a hospital chaplain ever since. There are a number of reasons that this is not a permanent job, most significantly because I am both still underqualified for it (I haven't done a residency yet, and am unsure whether I will) and because I'm filling in while the hospital finds a qualified rabbi for the position. The agreement was to work on a per diem basis for a few months.

Needless to say, while I can pay my rent, pay my bills, and buy my groceries (amazing in itself on three days/week of work!) I am not receiving the benefits that would accrue to a full-time, permanent employee.

My school-sponsored insurance is about to run out, so at beginning of the month, I called my insurer (Aetna) to see whether I would be able to purchase COBRA or an individual plan.

Let me be clear: Aetna's basic student plan (what I could get while in seminary) was NOT sufficient to my needs. But it was better than nothing. Let's just say that for part of each year (after I've exhausted large parts of my benefit) my health-related expenses exceed my rent.

Of course, without insurance my health expenses would exceed any money that I earn.

More tomorrow. This story is one for installments!