At age 42, Mike had been toiling as a freelance technical writer for more than a decade. Writing how-to manuals wasn’t glamorous, but it paid the bills. His real passion was baseball, and he dreamed of being a sportswriter. When he read the sports section of the local newspaper, Mike would even make notes in the margins if he liked or disliked something in red Sharpie—just like his college newspaper editor did. He always came away thinking, “I can do better.”

Then one day he decided to show he could actually do better. After years of grumbling about his work, he ditched technical writing and took a job at a community newspaper, the kind of paper that smudged and ran pictures of lost pets. It meant taking a significant pay-cut, but he had to start somewhere. Mike reasoned that he could do it since he wasn’t married and didn’t have any kids depending on him. At least his new job in journalism had health benefits, something life as a freelancer didn’t offer.

He covered whatever his editors told him to write about—field hockey, lacrosse and high school football. For the first time in a long time, he was having fun at work. Nine months into the job, he got his big break: an offer from a nearby daily newspaper to be a sportswriter covering the big leagues meaning his beloved Dodgers. Mike naturally jumped at the offer and gave his old boss two-weeks notice.

	A persistent numbness on his left side sent Mike to the doctor.

Then a weird, persistent numbness on his left side sent him to the doctor. He needed to see a doctor while he was still covered by his soon to be ex-employer’s health insurance plan. The doctor didn’t have good news. Tests showed that Mike had brain lesions, an early indicator that he had Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a gradually debilitating neurological disorder that causes people to shake and lose mobility.

The doctor did offer Mike hope. He didn’t think Mike’s condition would be so bad that the writer would need to stop working in the immediate future. Still, the diagnosis wasn’t promising. Mike was soon going to be between jobs and health plans. Somewhere along the line, Mike had heard that “pre-existing conditions”—and his MS diagnosis sure sounded like one—might not be covered when enrolling in a new health plan. His friends and family didn’t soothe his fears. “From what I know,” his uncle warned him, “you’re gonna have trouble getting health coverage now.”

Just as he was about to start a great new job, life had intervened. Not only was Mike facing a life-altering condition—one that could compromise him on the sports beat—he had to worry about whether he’d be covered by his health insurance. On a journalist’s salary, he knew he couldn’t pay the medical costs himself once things got worse.

Theoretically, Mike could have called up the human resources person at his new job and asked all kinds of questions about his coverage. But what was he going to say? “Uh, hi. I was just diagnosed with having this really awful thing that could make me have to go out on disability at any time, would you please inform me of my rights?” Hmmmm. No, that didn’t sound appealing.

Mike was desperate. He called a social worker thinking this person could at least serve as a stand-in health coverage expert for him. The social worker could only answer questions for people who qualify for public health coverage programs like Medi-Cal.

He needed a neutral expert to explain his options for private health coverage in his predicament. While the social worker couldn’t help him directly, she did make a useful suggestion to Mike to find such a neutral expert: Try contacting a benefits planner through a local independent living center, a place that serves the disability community. Benefits planners help people with disabilities access all kinds of different benefits including health coverage.

Mike did a Google search for his local independent living center and paid them a call. The center’s staff hooked him up with a benefits planner named Ralph, who sat down with Mike a few days later. Ralph studied Mike’s situation and didn’t seem alarmed (to Mike’s relief). Indeed, Ralph cautioned, Mike had what health plans considered a pre-existing condition that could affect his health coverage. “The good news,” Ralph assured Mike, “is that we can make sure your new health plan covers your MS.”