Photo: Ende

Does this guy look like you feel?

Even before the economic crisis, plenty of New Yorkers lacked health insurance. Now, with the increasing number of layoffs, the ranks of the uninsured are swelling.

I’ve been among them since I quit my cube farm job with full benefits in 2004. I had no plan B. Until this year, I was living without any insurance, a self-employed New Yorker unwilling to trade fierce independence and the freedom of crafting my own career just to have a 401(k) and an insurance card.

In the past five years, though, I’ve done a lot of research about how you can live in NYC without insurance– and how you can find health care and insurance when you decide that you need it.

Here are some of the city’s best resources:

Freelancers Union:

The Freelancers Union is an excellent resource for any independent contractor looking for networking opportunities, gigs, and a critical mass of like-minded indie workers, but one of the biggest achievements and best resources of the Freelancers Union is its insurance offerings.

At present, the union offers five distinct insurance plans. The plans can cover you, your partner, your child(ren), and/or your whole family. Monthly rates range from $149.00 to $460.00 for individual coverage with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

There are eligibility requirements, of course, just like any insurance plan. For one thing, you’ll need to prove that your freelance income was at least $10,000 in the past six months. You can read all about the Freelancers Union insurance plans and eligibility criteria here.

Hello Health:

Let’s say–and it’s a real possibility, right?–that you didn’t make $10,000 as a freelancer in the past six months or you didn’t meet one or more of the other requirements for the Freelancers Union insurance plan.

Let’s say that you want to circumvent the insurance system entirely.

Well, so do some health care providers… especially the ones who founded Hello Health.

Hello Health is a doctor-founded model of health care that is totally unaffiliated with insurance companies. You don’t have to have insurance to see the docs at Hello Health. Instead, you pay a $35/month membership fee (far more affordable than the monthly rate of any insurance plan I’ve ever seen). Visits are priced between $100 and $200 depending on the complexity of the visit.

What’s that monthly membership fee for? You get e-mail and social media access to your doc between visits, helping you prevent or manage any non-acute concerns before you even need an office visit.

Currently based in Brooklyn, Hello Health recently announced that it will soon be opening an office in the West Village. This, in my opinion, is the single-most exciting health option in NYC if you don’t have serious existing conditions.

Photo: JoeSeggiola

New York City Department of Health:

The DOH isn’t a replacement for insurance or primary care, but it provides a hell of a lot of services that you may not even be aware of…and most of them are free, paid for with your tax dollars.

Are you a smoker? Cigarettes went up to $9.00 a pack today. If that’s too much for your meager budget, get on over to your local DOH office; it’s giving away nicotine gum and patches.

Thinking about having unprotected sex? You’ve got no excuse. The DOH gives away free condoms…and you don’t even have to make an appointment. Already having unprotected sex? Get those condoms anyway–and while you’re at it, make an appointment for a free STD/HIV test. New York state offers confidential AND anonymous testing. You choose (anonymous, of course, means you don’t even have to give your name).

The DOH offers lots of other services. You can read about them here or call the city at 311 to ask specific questions.

Health Plus:

You don’t make quite enough for Freelancers Union insurance or you’re not a freelancer. You’d like the security of a more robust form of insurance coverage. An alternative may be Health Plus, a subsidized insurance for residents of the 5 boros and Nassau County. It’s a complicated cluster of services–there’s Child Health Plus (for people under 19), Family Health Plus, Health Care Plus, and Health Plus Elite–but for a single person, an annual income of $14,580 or less is the primary eligibility criterion for coverage. Read more about the Health Plus program here or call 1-800-300-8181 for more information.

Have you found a resource that hasn’t been included here? Leave your advice in the comments.

Back when I was still on the hamster wheel of 9-to-5 work, I’d wake up to the sound of Francisco’s sleep and spirit shattering alarm clock and start the day grumbling.

More mornings than not, I would promptly start crying and ask whether I really had to go to work.

On March 17, 2004–yes, I remember the date!–I was driving to work after my usual early morning crying jag when I came to a screeching halt in traffic that had been stilled by a tractor trailer accident on the Long Island Expressway.

I’d been hit by a tractor trailer myself a few years before, and the experience of spinning off the interstate and doing a series of 360s had left me shaken, all too aware of my mortality. When I saw the mangled car on the LIE, I didn’t hesitate. That was my sign. I inched my way to the next exit, I found a pay phone, I called into work and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m not coming in today. Or ever again, for that matter.”
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When Francisco and I jumped off the hamster wheel and started working for ourselves, what gave us more pleasure than anything was the freedom of being able to work from home.

No more alarm clock!

We get up when we feel like it. We go to bed when we feel like it. We don’t have to unwind on Fridays or get that anxious knot in the stomach on Sunday nights. We work more than ever, but we also live more than ever. In fact, the line between the two is usually pretty blurry, which is just fine with us.

After 4 years of working from home, I’ve got some advice to share with friends and readers who have either just taken the plunge off the wheel or are planning to do so soon:

1. Create your ideal workspace. It doesn’t have to be a room dedicated to the function of an office, though that’s really divine if possible. But take some time to create your workspace. Think about how you work (do you spread everything out or stack everything up?), what items you like to have around you, what inspires you. It’s YOUR space now; no boss will be coming around to check it.

2. Start each day with a list. I’m a big list-maker, and though not everyone is, the act of sitting down with a cup of coffee or tea each morning and making your list has the power of focusing you in on the big picture and the small picture at the same time. Don’t feel pressured to do everything on the list, but do capture those ideas about projects you’d like to pursue so you don’t lose them.

3. Don’t buy the idea that you must have a routine. I’m a serious Type A personality, but I do not have a daily routine. Once my coffee and list are done, today turns into something totally different than yesterday. If you function better with a rigid routine, honor that. But don’t force yourself to adopt a routine if that’s not your style. In doing so, you’ll likely cut off opportunities, synchronicities, and spontaneity. While the idea of breaking at 3 PM every day for yoga or a walk with the dog sounds nice, it’s just not something I want to PLAN. And if I force myself to believe that I have to stick to a routine, then I’ll feel bad about myself when I break it, which is inevitable. And that’s just so against the whole point of working from home!

4. Accept that you will have days that are terribly unproductive. You will waste entire days going through friends’ StumbleUpons or you’ll think of 10 reasons why you should clean the toilet or start planning that round-the-world trip rather than work on a project that’s due. That’s ok. It happens. Do not force yourself to keep working in these circumstances. Stop. Take a break. Do something relaxing and fun. Then get back to work.

5. Redefine what work is. Nobody’s holding you to a job description or dangling the motivators of raises, promotions, or demotions over your head anymore. You work for you. So if you want to go to a concert on the day you told yourself you “should” be working, do it. Write about it on your blog. Photograph it. View it as experience gathering, interest expanding, and portfolio building. All of my friends who work from home do this and some of their best work is produced when they happened to have the camera or notebook along even when they weren’t officially working.

6. Pick & choose advice: While folks like me are more than happy to share their tips for how to work from home, you have to choose what works best for you. Plenty of people have told me I could get a lot more done if I only checked my e-mail twice a day, but I just won’t even consider that. Will it increase my productivity? Perhaps. But by responding to people promptly, I’ve been able to grab opportunities that I might otherwise have missed. It’s advice that’s just not useful for me. When someone wants to tell you how you should work at home, listen, nod your head, say “Thanks,” and then choose what works best for you… and let us know about it!

Work at Home Photo: TheeErin (creative commons)
Hamster Wheel Photo: Williamallthing (creative commons)

Who’s blue and bored all over?

You?

If you’re bored out of your mind, try these tips to get back on track!
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6. Make a bucket list. What are 100 things you want to do before you kick the bucket? Make a list. Fill it up with all the ideas that come to mind–don’t censor yourself. If you pass 100, keep going!

Even if the idea sounds crazy, unachievable, or something you wouldn’t even tell your best friend, that’s ok! Just making this list will (1) make you realize that you HAVE interests and (2) make all those cool ideas and dreams that have been circulating in your head start to feel real. Getting ideas down on paper has a powerful effect. You’ll probably recover dreams and goals you’d forgotten you had!

5. Change your scene. Sometimes we get stuck because our environments–home, office, etc.–feel stagnant. Shift things around. Add something new that stimulates your interest. This change doesn’t have to be dramatic, though it can be. Even something as simple as adding some artwork or putting some pictures or your favorite poem on the fridge will make you stop and see things in a new way.

4. Get up & get out. Start moving. Go for a walk. Go explore that neighborhood you’ve always meant to visit. Eat at that restaurant you’ve been planning to try for the longest. Visit the museum you’ve always ignored. Stop making excuses & just do it. You deserve it.

3. Pick up a new hobby. Have you always wanted to learn how to take photographs? To knit? To cook? Fly a plane? Learn a new language? What’s kept you from doing it? Whether your excuse has been your budget or time, you can find a way to pursue your hobby in a way that fits your needs.

2. Become an intern at any age. Internships aren’t just for college kids or recent grads desperate to get some hands-on work experience and references. So many businesses in a number of industries are always looking for interns, and someone with professional and life experience is an attractive intern candidate. What’s something you’ve always wanted to learn more about? Check craigslist for local internship opportunities or make a cold call and offer your services.

1. Get back in touch. With all of the technology we have to connect us, many people feel more disconnected than ever. When was the last time you flipped through your address book (if you still have one!) and got in touch with an old friend? Make a call or write a letter. You’ll make someone else’s day and you’ll probably feel better, too!

Boredom Photo: riot jane
Walking Photo: Pensiero
Letter Photo: carf