Survey Invites Musicians to Speak Out on Health Care

Not to belittle the healthcare woes of Owen Pallett or any of our other musical brothers and sisters up in Canada, but at least they (ideally, anyway) are entitled to government-funded health care. The same cannot be said, of course, for the citizens of the United States, who must either secure health insurance at discounted rates through an employer, pay for their own health insurance, or simply go without coverage.

Many working musicians of the United States find themselves in the latter two categories-- an issue that the Future of Music Coalition, to name one organization, has addressed in earnest.

But for musicians and others in the state of Massachusetts, the health insurance dilemma has only gotten hairier. A recent sweeping health reform bill essentially requires that all residents of the state obtain health insurance "that is deemed affordable to them at their income level," or else face a tax penalty. This "individual mandate", as it is known, is explained in detail here.

According to Andrew Cohen, a specialist in health care policy with Boston-based national research and advocacy group The Access Project, Massachusetts is the only state to enact an individual mandate thus far, though other states are considering similar laws.

The concern here is that these policy-makers are passing health care legislation such as the individual mandate without fully considering the financial burden on citizens-- including musicians and others who earn their bread in the arts.

This issue is something the Boston-based Access Project affiliate The Artists Foundation hopes to call attention to by administering the state's first artists census.

Using a similar survey conducted in Minnesota in 2007 as a model, the "Stand Up and Be Counted" online questionnaire is available now to all artist residents of Massachusetts. By filling it out, residents can help generate an artists profile for their state-- something that, one hopes, will have some bearing on lawmakers' future health care policy decisions.

If this applies to you, by all means, fill it out; if not, pass it along to someone who could benefit from it, and use this internet thing right here to keep abreast of health care shakeups in your area.