Why I’m Looking For A Staff Job

I want to add a private entry briefly explaining my reasons for restricting my job hunt to a staff job.

Of course, now that I am pushing 40, preparing for retirement with a stable job providing pension benefits of some kind is a concern. But the main reason is that, with the health care system the way it is in the U.S. now, I am unable to get health insurance on the open market because of my pre-existing medical condition, namely HIV/AIDS.

When I first moved to Washington, I was able to get health insurance through a Rube-Goldbergian system of interlocking memberships in various groups, which made me eligible for their group health plans. But one of the unintended consequences of the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was that it killed the availability of such associational group coverage, virtually overnight.

Since then, I’ve alternated staff jobs — such as the one I had at Venture Productions — with the COBRA coverage they provided after my departure, until my Venture COBRA finally ran out last spring. At that time, I was fortunate enough to have GayBC.com offer to put me on their group plan even though, of course, I’m only working for them freelance, and only very occassionally. John McMullen, head of GayBC, really stepped up to the plate for me.

But GayBC is faltering now, and it’s very clear that I need to get my own permanent, reliable, durable (as much as that’s possible) group coverage. Which, at this time and place, means a staff job — which I need to plan on keeping until the health insurance system in this country changes to a more AIDS-friendly system.