Summary of prof. orgs. offering health benefits

[Nancy Smith <smithcds -at- ICI -dot- NET>]

Friends,

Awhile back I requested info on professional
organizations that offer health benefits.  I got
several responses (shown below) and appreciate your
help!

Unfortunately (for me, anyway) none of the pointers
gave any details, though some gave phone numbers.

After completing a somewhat arduous evaluation of
the benefits of my new employer (an oursourcing
company where I am paid by the hour, not on salary)
I have decided to go with them.  I simply didn't
have the time and energy to do a similar evaluation
via phone with agents, so I guess I took the "easy"
way out.  My new insurance is not quite as good as
what I had with my previous employer (where I was on
salary) but I can't stay on COBRA forever.  And by
going with this arrangement I can also have a Health
Care Reimbursement Account and some other benefits.

When you are a candidate for direct employment, you
can have these details up front, but it isn't so
easy to get them up front through membership
organizations!  So if you are thinking of going that
route, give yourself lots of evaluation time!

Thanks again.

Nancy

Responses:

NAFE - National Association of Female
Executives. They've got great member benefits,
including insurance.
http://www.nafe.com/

The IEEE offers a number of benefits to their
members.  They have a
Professional Communication Society, geared toward
the needs of Technical
Communicators.  For more information visit
http://www.ieee.org for IEEE
information and http://www.ieeepcs.org for
PCS-specific information.

If you do own your own company, SBSB (Small Business
Service Bureau) offers health insurance and other
benefits for an annual fee. I believe they are
located in Mass. and have a toll free number
(800-222-5678).
If you are an individual just looking for health
insurance, a couple of writing-related organizations
also have health plans. One of them is International
Women's Writers Guild, located in NY.

I don't get my insurance through such a group. I'm
sure I'm not the
first to send you this, but STC offers insurance.
See the following URL:
http://www.stc-va.org/membershipframe.html

We get our company's insurance through our local
chamber of commerce, which in
turn is through a Small Business Administration
consortium.  It is Blue Cross
and works very well.  I know locally, this is also
available to members of the
chamber for single family coverage.

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