Implications of the Affordable Care Act for Artists
In 2010 we surveyed over 5,000 artists about their health care needs and challenges and found that it was one of their main concerns. Over 1/3 of artists (36%) reported being inadequately insured. Of those who were insured, half were worried about losing their insurance.
This article provides an interesting synopsis of how the Affordable Care Act affects artists, including making it easier to choose a path as an artist in the first place:
Being a writer, or a visual artist, or a musician, or an actor, has always been an economically risky choice where a few people succeed in dramatic terms, a larger number figure out middle-class existences doing what they love at least part of the time, and others struggle to do what they love. The ACA, and the ability to purchase more affordable insurance as an individual, doesn’t change that economic calculus. But it does help minimize a risk factor that can make it impossible to attempt careers as artists at all.
And this is the crux of it for me: these types of policies make it easier for people to take risks and do things outside of the norm. That is not only good for creativity and art, but for society and the economy at large. Imagine what types of entrepreneurial business ventures we might see if people had a baseline safety net so that failure didn’t mean death (sometimes literally)?
For more information on the Affordable Care Act for artists, as well as practical resources for getting covered, visit this site.
