Of course, we are not illegal immigrants, scofflaws, uneducated or poor. We look like the majority of the uninsured, according to US Census Bureau and the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. We are American citizens like 85 percent of the non-insured. One of us has a year-round, full time job, as do 67 percent of the non-insured. We are college-educated, as are 31 percent of the non-insured. We are white or ”other,” as are 30 percent of the non-insured.

What happened to us is what has happened to many of the 14.5 million who are unemployed: we lost our employer-sponsored health insurance when my husband was laid off last year. We did not have the luxury of turning to my employer. Like 17 million other Americans, I am self-employed, a sole proprietor whose health insurance was covered by a spouse’s employer.

With signs that the economy is slowly rebounding, many families hope finding a job will restore their health insurance. After all, more than half of all Americans receive health insurance through their employers. But full time employment is no guarantee of health insurance coverage.

The number of private employers offering health insurance has declined steadily this decade. Back in 2000, more than 69 percent offered their employees health insurance, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Education Trust. By last year, that number dropped to 63 percent.

The biggest decline came from small businesses, particularly those with fewer than 26 employees. Only 49 percent of these small businesses offer coverage – down from 57 percent in 2000. The National Small Business Association corroborates these findings: they found that only 38 percent of their members offer coverage; 14 years ago, 67 percent offered their employees coverage.

The decline in health care coverage by small business employers is particularly troubling, since this sector accounted for 94 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. in the last two decades. More than 70 million Americans work for a small business today.  But small businesses have been crippled by the ever-escalating costs of health insurance and many have been forced to forgo this luxury benefit.

If left unaddressed, this trend of businesses dropping health insurance coverage could add another eight million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured in ten years, bringing the total to 54 million Americans without health insurance, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

So far our family has not lost its insurance. Unlike others who lost theirs due to unemployment, we were fortunate enough to not only have access to COBRA – a continuation of our health insurance for 18 months – but, also the financial well being to pay the $1500 monthly premiums. Others have not been so fortunate. Some had no access to COBRA when their companies closed up; others had to make the difficult trade off between food and shelter or health insurance because their unemployment payments couldn’t cover both.

COBRA ends this month and, with it, our options. While we will save some money, we will pay higher out-of-pocket costs, see a reduction in level of coverage and greater restrictions placed on which doctors, hospitals and procedures we can use.  But, at some point, if my husband continues to be unemployed and my business continues with its revenue halved, $1200-a-month health insurance may be an unaffordable luxury for us too.  And then we will officially join the ranks of the un-insured.  Not as illegal immigrants, scofflaws or the uneducated.  But as the working poor, our savings depleted by health insurance premiums.

Anne Mai Bertelsen is the Founder and President of MAi Strategies, a marketing consulting firm specializing in integrated marketing strategy development and implementation.  Her clients include American Express Consumer Card Group, United Nations’ Office of Humanitarian Assistance, and the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Prior to starting her own firm, Anne held various marketing positions at American Express, the Port Authority of NY and NJ and Dresner, Sykes, Jordan & Townsend (DSJT), a national public image and political consulting firm.  She was also an Assistant Producer at CBS News’ Election and Survey Unit.

In hindsight, the gift was not really for me but rather for them; it was an investment my employers made in their own company.  A political consulting firm, they were faced with two choices as I neared the end of my pregnancy:  they could replace me during their busiest time or they could set me up to work virtually.  It was an investment that more than paid off:  I worked as hard – if not harder – than in my pre-motherhood days when I routinely clocked in 50 hours a week in the office.  In addition to the meetings I attended via phone from my home during the workday, I also worked late into the night, faxing campaign strategies, advertising copy or polling analyses to greet partners or clients first thing in the morning.

Even when I left politics, joining the corporate world, I insisted on – and received – flexible work arrangements from American Express, a first for them in late 1992.  They would enable others to follow suit earning them repeated inclusion in Working Mother Magazine’s list of Best Employers for Working Mothers.

Since my first home office, technology has leapfrogged and irrevocably changed where and how work is defined:  my computer has been replaced by a laptop, the modem for a wi-fi network, the faxes for email and phone calls for webinars.  With 24/7 connectedness and ultimate mobility, the “office” can be anywhere.  I can partner with the person down the street or on the other side of the globe.  And, technology has done something else:  it has freed us to be more creative, to spend more time building relationships and communities – both physical and virtual, to understand and solve the pain points of our lives.  This type of creativity and empathy, drawing on the right side of the brain, argues Daniel Pink, author and former Al Gore speechwriter, has helped usher us out of the Information Age and into the Conceptual Age, an age of high concept, high touch; an age that requires creativity, community connectedness, and an un-tethered workplace.

This new age – is a boon to working mothers and fathers and is being fueled by our current economic downturn.  As people lose their jobs, they look for creative ways to support themselves and their families.  Even before the economic tailspin, creative, right-brained individuals were creating new products and services that challenge the notions of how things are done, how work is conceived and produced.  The growth of social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MyWorkButterfly,) and crowdsourcing for social good (e.g., Kiva, Global Giving, Ushahidi or the soon to be launched, If I Ran The World) are just two examples of this changing landscape.

While the early years of my virtual career simply changed the geographic location of where work was conducted, the coming years will be marked by a change in the nature of the work itself:  it will be community reliant, creative and enabled by an untethered office.

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Anne Mai Bertelsen is the Founder and President of MAi Strategies, a marketing consulting firm specializing in integrated marketing strategy development and implementation.  Her clients include American Express Consumer Card Group, United Nations’ Office of Humanitarian Assistance, and the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Prior to starting her own firm, Anne held various marketing positions at American Express, the Port Authority of NY and NJ and Dresner, Sykes, Jordan & Townsend (DSJT), a national public image and political consulting firm.  She was also an Assistant Producer at CBS News’ Election and Survey Unit.