Jordan Maney launched her wedding and event planning business about a year and a half ago because she recognized that nontraditional couples were being overlooked by the wedding industry.
As owner and sole employee of her home-based consulting company, All The Days Event Co., in San Antonio, Maney can plan and coordinate everything from the engagement party to the music that plays as a newly married couple exits their reception. She specializes in events for nontraditional couples, people whom other bridal planners may overlook. This includes couples who are biracial, older, minority or gay.
Maney loves her work. But as a budding business owner running a "one-woman show," she needed to purchase her own health insurance and find a plan she could afford. This weighed on her as she approached her 26th birthday in September and would no longer be eligible to be covered under her father's health plan. (She'd benefited from a popular provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows parents to keep adult children on the family's health plan until age 26.)
Maney read up on the Affordable Care Act and studied the choices available to her on the federal health insurance exchange. And, at the end of last year, she signed up on healthcare.gov for a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. After a tax credit, she pays a $57 monthly premium.
Maney says without the subsidy, she would not be able to afford health insurance while she builds her business.
It is disheartening to think that low-income people could be "left out in the cold" if the ACA is repealed, she says.
For now, she is grateful to have coverage. "I am so excited about it. I can pursue my dream of having an event planning business and take care of myself health-wise, too."
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