Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

Ananda, thanks for the link - it's always good to find the like-minded people!

I don't think ACA has anything to do with Medicare; it has it's own set of regulations. You may want to ask your case worker if you can get a supplemental plan with your Medicare so all costs are covered.

I think you're right, Lauren - you need on Medicare as soon as possible. And while we're at it, we need Medicare for ALL.

LaurenInPHX, I'm very sorry that you're forced to face this daunting challlenge. Obviously a far lesser impact, but I paid out-of-state tuition earning my graduate degree because health insurance was so expensive in the new state and I was reluctant to rely on student health insurance. I was lucky that the situation was temporary (two years), but it's terrible that access to health care drives so many important life decisions. I'm sure the folks on the Stage IV forums will gladly share their knowledge. I do know from a family member's battle that an attorney will take a significant chunk of your disability income. If the Stage IV diagnosis makes approval highly likely, it would be a shame to lose that income without some assurance that the attorney can do something to expedite the process or dramatically improve your chances of getting approved.

Once you know better how your treatment will affect you, might your skill set lend itself to teaching in the continuing education department of a community college? They typically give more credence to industry experience vs. the emphasis on academic credentials in teaching traditional college classes. The classes are often short-term (say, three hours twice a week for three weeks) vs. for an entire semester and staying under the $1,200 income limit could be easily done. Also, if you own your home and are approved for disability, be sure to look into whether you can get a break in your property taxes.

Lyn

Agreed 100%, wander. 100%. 

Hi Lyn -

Somehow I missed your post.

The teaching in a college is an interesting idea! I never would have thought of that to be honest. I doubt I could qualify however for something official. I’m self-taught with no degree and have zero experience, but teaching is basically what I was doing in my business just in a less official capacity.

I’ve solved the lawyer issue by retiring and not making any money at all unless my book sells eventually, but YES I couldn’t believe how much they take! I don’t know how people survive on SSDI.

I’m starting to get more excited about my passion project and retiring, so I’m in the process of closing down my business. If it’s safe to do so in 2020 I can start it up again but at this point I’m considering myself retired.

When I am in here complaining about writing remind me I said this and tell me to zip it, haha

Lauren

This was in my mailbox. Somebody doesn't know me AT ALL.

🤬🤬🤬🖕🖕🖕

Yes, my business is already an LLC, but there is also a gainful activity limit which limits hours. The rules seem a little objective to me and I don’t want to mess with it. I’m sure there is a way to beat the system, but I can’t risk it. More to the point is I guess what it ended up coming down to is if my days are numbered, do I really want to work every day? The answer turned out to be no.

I’m really excited to have a passion project that will hopefully bring in a little money and also to get this story out of my head!

Congratulations on your new project! I can’t wait to see the finished products. So exciting

Sorry but I did hope we could keep politics off this thread. On October 21st Ananda posted the link for engaging in political discussion. Yes, it's easy to be snarky, but we're supposed to be representing a full spectrum of BCO sister/brothers here who want to discuss being an atheist, and all the blow back just that word alone represents.

For over 200 pages we've been able to support each other in various degrees of 'being an atheist' - some more fully committed & some less - but all basically on the same page with that topic. Politics in this day & age does not lend itself to supporting each other very well unless we are careful of other's feelings who we might inadvertantly not even "see". We don't want people to 'dis' us as atheists so we probably shouldn't be "dissing" others who may be of different political persuasions - whichever they might be.

If I'm in the minority with these thoughts, I'll quietly withdraw from this thread.

Agree with Minus Two. If you want politics, there are threads here for that too. The Mirror thread has been inactive for months. Think they all went to fb. This is supposed to be for atheists. Can we get back to that, please

Can we just skip over posts we don't like instead of trying to make this thread a form of tapioca pudding. Some people object if there is any snarky comments about religion. Some object to comments on politics. Rather than just objecting why don't people post their own opinions on subjects rather than objection to subjects being brought up? I for one think it is important to respect people. Ideas should be always open to criticism.

I think this thread has no purpose if it is only to say, "I am an atheist with cancer." We are all atheists living in an enormously complex America and should be able to comment on all aspects of our lives.

Just my thoughts.

Lauren, I'm with you - should I develop mets I will instantly retire.

I'm in agreement with Ananda about not trying to ban political talk or snarky jokes about religion, and just scroll by what we don't want to comment on. The problem is, I don’t think you CAN separate religion and politics these days. The Republicans have actively made it a cornerstone of their party. We have a president who has never cracked open a Bible who is the darling of the religious conservatives. And, “the personal is political” -religious/political infringements of our rights are topics that seem a good fit to me for this thread. But if most people disagree with that, how about we start a progressive atheist thread and I’ll migrate over there?