A Generation of Journalists Uninsured: Writing Without Health Insurance

This week, New York magazine ran a cover story on the "Young and Uninsured," or the "Young Invincibles," as the insurance industry apparently likes to call them. The story explains how young (20-30), healthy, non-salaried workers are stuck in this insuranceless, safety net-less void between graduation and a long-term job with benefits, and the phenomenon is only growing due to the migration away from '50s-style lifelong jobs.

The entire time, I couldn't help but think about journalists.

I often hear about how rough the job market is, especially in a major urban area, for young people. Many of the workers profiled in the New York article were working unrelated jobs - in restaurants, retail, etc. - to support their true passions, like art. We hear about this phenomenon all the time - but do we think about what happens when someone gets a cavity? Or gets hit by a taxi?

I've been having frequent, nervous conversations with others about the prospect of being without health insurance. And it's coming fast - so, like many others, I'm rushing to get myself "situated" before it expires. But what about after school?

I don't expect to receive a salaried job right away. Am I stuck watching preventative care fly out the window? And what if something unforseen and terrible happens? I'm certainly one of the more invincible young invincibles, but I'm still human - and I still live in a big city.

In a previous post, I mentioned the difficulty (read: impossibility) of a new graduate or new journalist in trying to make ends meet on only journalism internships (entry-entry-level, basically). I didn't even mention health care. What if you're out of school and older than 24?

You're screwed, that's what.

And I think that's just one more side-effect of a system in journalism that keeps its most entry-level workers at benefitless hourly wages (and no, worker's compensation is not what I'm talking about. I don't forsee any major damages incurred from typing and complaining too much about what I'm typing about.). This is what I'd like to call the Pursuit of (Journalistic) Happyness syndrome - new job, new industry, no benefits.

So I'd like to open up the forum and ask you, readers and journalists: Have you spent a time in your life uninsured, particularly as a journalist or related profession? Did something happen? Were you able to cope, financially? When did you finally get benefits?

And what about you Gawker editors? Alex Balk, Emily Gould, Alex Pareene, Brian Lam, Gina Trapani, Ben Popken? Does Denton give you the goods?

Or are you all members of the Freelancers Union?

Readers, allow this post to be your own profile and post your own stories. Anonymity is OK. I'm especially interested in those twentysomethings that are out there now in the big cities. How do you manage?