Most full-time jobs come with employer-provided health insurance. If this benefit is on the table, why would an individual choose to operate as an independent contractor — especially a person who lives with a chronic condition? Althea Cole, an Uber driver who battles a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis, explains in this column in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gazette. Cole says her condition prevents her from working a full-time job. Indeed, she writes, If my medical conditions were ever to warrant extended time off for surgical procedures … I would once again be subject to the bureaucratic nightmare of medical leave laws that weren’t enough to protect me from losing my last full-time permanent job. She says driving for Uber has been a “blessing.” Her earnings supplement disability benefits and, because she can make her own hours, she can stay home whenever she feels unwell without “feeling at risk of losing my job for taking too many sick days.” The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act threatens to strip Cole of her right to operate independently. If the Senate passes the PRO Act (the U.S. House already did in a recent 225-206 vote), Cole would be forced to become … Continue reading PRO Act would hurt entrepreneurs living with chronic conditions