Health Care Ruling and Indie Artists

Contributed by Shay Gines

WOW, the Supreme Court announced today that it will uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” as it has been dubbed by the press. According to the Supreme Court statement, Congress enacted the healthcare plan “in order to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and decrease the cost of health care.”

Whether or not the act would be deemed constitutional and would actually go into effect is a question that has weighed heavily on Americans’ minds ever since it was passed in 2010. Subsidized healthcare has become a key topic especially as the recession has found millions of people without jobs and the assistance of employer-sponsored insurance to cover medical costs for them and their families.

As “freelancers,” indie theatre artists across the country have struggled with this for decades. How many of us have turned to day jobs not just to make the rent, but perhaps more importantly to qualify for affordable health insurance? The Fractured Atlas website notes that “independent workers, such as artists, now make up 30% of the total workforce.” This means that nearly a third of America’s labor force is left to find and maintain health insurance without the benefit of collective bargaining. “We need a new model that echoes the origin of insurance – people joining together to make sure they have each others’ backs when times get tough” Sara Horowitz founder and Executive Director of Freelancers Union says on her blog. “Freelancers recognized this early on. It was only when they joined together as a group that they could leverage their own power. Solidarity works. And that is our touchstone moving ahead.”

Will the PPAC Act provide the changes that our community needs? I believe that these reforms will be significantly beneficial to indie artists.  I think some of the most valuable provisions include:

• No annual or lifetime limit on benefits – meaning that your insurance provider can’t cut you off just because you exceed a spending limit. There is some tricky fine print about this and some role out dates. So if this is important to you check out the details.
• You can not be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition – they also can not unreasonably jack up your rates based on a pre-existing condition.
• Young Adults can remain on their parents’ insurance plan until the age of 26 years old – 15% of the OOB community is 19 to 26 years old. So this provision will allow those artists some stability and flexibility as they endeavor to establish their careers. There are some limitations.
• Creation of CO-OP non-profit health insurance – CO-OP stands for Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans. According to the HealthCare.gov website, CO-OPs are “meant to offer consumer-friendly, affordable health insurance options to individuals and small businesses.” They are basically a group of individuals and small businesses banning together to run their own health insurance. It is a very exciting option. One that I think we will see a lot of in the next few years. If you are interested in this, check out more details.
• It’s Affordable Health Insurance – The bottom line is that it is affordable health insurance that offers more options for many of us who have struggled to maintain health insurance. Maybe we will not be so dependent on day jobs?  Maybe???? I can dream.

Are there short comings or a down side?  Well, nothing is perfect and when it comes to health care, one size does not fit all. So there will undoubtedly be a lot of growing pains over the next few years. Currently there are a number of valid concerns about such a sweeping reform:

• Increased Taxes – The federal government is already in so much debt that it is mind boggling. Experts anticipate that the U.S. will spend over $1 trillion in the next decade to subsidize this reform. Will this cost be passed on to taxpayers? Will it plunge the country into even more debt? Will the investment pay off in a healthier population that does not need to spend as much money on health care? Time will tell.
• Postal Service Health Care – Have you ever been to the post office? I hate it. Long lines that take forever. Inefficient procedures. Impersonal. Staff that could not care less about you or your business. Hot. Frustrating. Lethargic… The fear is that if the federal government takes control of your health care, it will become just like the post office; bogged down in bureaucracy and that ultimately it will become a regimented machine that does not take the personal needs of the patients into account. Personally I don't think health care will slip into the postal quagmire.
• Individual Mandate – This was really where the constitutionality of Healthcare Act was called into question. The law would mandate that Americans are required to have health insurance or else they would face a penalty – oops I mean a tax. (There are some people who are exempt.) It will be interesting to see how the government deals with this.

Even with these uncertainties and questions I think that it is a step in positive and progressive direction.

What do you think? Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act benefit you? 

Health Insurance & the Theatre Artist

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Brad Burgess.


The first important point about health insurance and thereby healthcare in our industry, is that even in the best unions, a minority of members qualify for their respective insurance requirements. (This is aside from the lack of representation for the majority of artists in our community who are not represented by the unions.)

In fact, the current arrangement is such, that if you work 8 weeks in Equity, 8 weeks in SAG, 8 weeks in AFTRA, for a total of 24 weeks, which is over the minimum requirement of weeks in one year for each of their plans, you would not qualify for any one those insurance plans. The lesson is, that even the establishment in our industry is unable to handle the health insurance of its members.

It’s important to note that all of those unions perform great services for artists, and really do have the best of intentions for their members. So, given their current situation is in sync with ours, there is an opportunity to work together from various angles with unions, government, and foundations included, while these problems seem clearer and clearer to us. Especially now that it is clear that the government is requiring insurance, it is indeed the responsibility of the industry leaders to assist and advocate on behalf of all the artists, as all of them are affected.

It starts from the top of it with the National Endowment for the Arts. If someone can explain to me how it is reasonable that through the economic explosion of the 90’s and early 2000’s, the NEA’s budget has actually dropped a couple million from its highest point in the very early 90’s, I would appreciate that very much! ha! That’s crazy.

This year it’s only 160 million, though for the first time it will be higher than the city of New York’s budget for the DCA because of a major budget cut that’s happening. But in recent years this city’s made more money available for the arts than the federal government. How did that happen? One city found a way to make more money available for the arts than the federal government.

...160 million for the arts industry while the congressional budget for its small business committee is 400 billion dollars… I mean, this is what we are dealing with, all of us, a complete and utter lack of money in the industry from the government, along with the financial problems of foundations and individual patrons.

The ones that are mass affected by this are the thousands of low income artists in this city that scrape and claw and hustle to survive without nearly enough money working its way into their hands for the work and responsibilities they handle. I can’t say enough about how impressive it is, the dedication of the individual artists all over the city that make their art and provide for many aspects of the culture. Many of them do this in addition to having families and full time jobs. I think this is likely a pretty nationwide phenomenon in the arts industry in regional and community theatres and arts spots everywhere in the U.S.

But it’s clear we have an advantage in this city with its perspective on culture from the residents to the businesses to the politicians and we all have a responsibility to make the best of it. We need to be hopeful and diligent and happily continue to work together as we are.

I’ve been working on organizing a push for a proposal, with the help and focus of many individuals. As of right now, so long as the bill pushes through without disaster, I will be working with the help of the policy writing team from Equity, and the gracious guidance of their national director of special programs who is a really cool lady if there ever was one. Speaking of, Olympia Dukakis and Judith helped me meet with many industry leaders and ultimately Flora at Equity, with whose help this idea can really tackle the necessary details of a proposal like the one we need.

The details of this proposal are pretty vague at the moment, but let me say that everyone I’ve talked to has been very supportive and sure that we can come up with something that really benefits everyone in the industry without disturbing the status quo for the people are comfortable and secure with it.

Stay tuned for more about it in the coming months, we’ll be asking for all the help and participation we can get. Please feel free to email me with interest!

Less politics and more art tomorrow.


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The Practice of Progressive Politics

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Brad Burgess.


So, before even getting to how artists fit into all this, I think the most important thing when talking about healthcare reform (this one is really health insurance reform), is to take the following perspective, “I must let go of whatever bill I would have written if it were %100 up to what I think it should be word for word.” In fact this may be the most fundamental, yet modernly unpracticed, aspect of progressive politics. We can’t make all the progress at once.

It would be foolish to criticize the healthcare bill because it doesn’t also solve the energy crisis. By the same token I feel its important not to criticize the bill because it does not solve every problem we have with our health and with the way we practice it in society with one another.

This is one area in which being part of a collective is very helpful. A collective is not a congress, and that is a tremendous advantage of a group’s ability to compromise. At The Living Theatre everyone is considered a director of the play at rehearsal and is given the opportunity to act as such as much as the individual artists in the group will go along with whoever has the floor. We almost never come to an impasse where half the group thinks one thing and half the group thinks the other. We have many common interests and it’s not hard to find them in the creation of our art together.

The debate on our health should have a plethora of common interest. Instead, somehow, every member of the red team thought the exact same way. I can’t imagine how this is possible. If this last vote does not display that: this system of decision making is not good; then I’m not sure what can. Not one republican could compromise on this bill? About our health!? If they can’t agree about that, then how can this congress possibly have a chance at really representing our common interests?

I’m not saying that it’s the republicans fault at all, though lots of activity on the right is quite terrifying at present, including the racial slurs and shouting at people during press conferences. Kudos to Obama for keeping it totally focused and calm and collected amidst all this.

But, it is the systems fault. There are two problems that showcase this systematic failure as I see it. The democrats couldn’t come up with a bill that one republican would vote for. And, not one republican could make any compromise with the proposal. When those two factors are true, then it seems there’s a pervasive systematic break down at that point. ‘Two parties’ does not work as a system. It can’t. We are too diverse, and it’s very silly to think that all 300 million people in this country fit into two categories on any level, especially the political level.

But, we have to get over all of this. It’s all there and we have no choice but to work with it. We have to get over the fact that there are enough problems to make everyone go on passionate rants that make every idea sound like a bad one and create an impossible environment for progress or change.

Do you think that, as an anarchist, I like that this bill gives insurance companies more money? Do you think that I like %100, that now, I am being forced by the government to pay for something that I have freely chosen not to pay for for the last few years? Listen, I can’t even stand that there is a government at all. So, what am I gonna do, try to prevent the government from doing anything? How could anything get better if that was my attitude?

Well, that is the attitude in Washington D.C. It’s mostly preventative politics instead of the politics of progress. So for now, let me give a resounding, “Hell yeah!” that something forward thinking got done some how.

Tomorrow I’ll tackle how we are possibly going to handle being able to pay for health insurance when we can barely figure out how to even pay legitimate salaries to those deserving in our organizations, or even rent a lot of the time.

BB

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What’s happening with the Healthcare Bill?

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contributed by Shay Gines

With the surprise election of Republican Scott Brown in the special Massachusetts Senatorial race and the fact that political experts expect the U.S. to swing toward the right with more Republicans being elected in November, the Healthcare Reform bill finds itself in a precarious situation with increased pressure to pass it and quick. Without the super majority that Democrats have enjoyed this last year, it is not likely that they will be able to push the bill through. For some Democrats the rocky road ahead may not seem worth the fight and enthusiasm for the bill is waning.

Both the House and the Senate have already passed their version of the bill. However, they are not the same bill. Normally at this point, representatives from the House and from the Senate would meet to address the critical differences between the two, make compromises and merge the bills. Then each house would re-pass the bill before it is sent to the White House for the Presidential signature.

However, with the loss of that one crucial Senatorial seat the bill will not be able to garner the votes needed to pass in the Senate. Proponents of the bill have stated that they are considering their options which include breaking the bill into smaller pieces or scaling back. However, the current front runner is passing the bill through “reconciliation.” If the House supports the Senate’s already approved bill, it would allow the Senate to pass the bill with a simple majority vote and bypass a potential filibuster by Republicans.

While some supporters see reconciliation as the most amenable solution, there are some possible complications that need to be taken into account. Bill supporters from the House who feel that they have already made too many concessions want certain guarantees if they approve the Senate’s version of the bill. They want assurances that the inconsistencies between the two bills will actually be addressed by the Senate. The flip side of this is the threat from Senate Democrats who will reverse their vote if the final bill diverges too dramatically from the bill they originally passed. Ahhh politics.

Meanwhile Republicans are baring their teeth, anticipating that Democrats will try to avoid a full vote in the Senate. In an interview with the Salt Lake Tribute, Utah Senator Orin Hatch (R) said passing the bill through reconciliation would be "one of the worst grabs for power in the history of the country" and it would lead to all out political war.

In his State of the Union address, Obama said "Don't walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people."

However where healthcare once occupied the top spot on Obama’s agenda, it is now overshadowed by the economy and creating new domestic jobs. Obama and his administration are turning the focus to more achievable prospects. The politicians are tired of the debate and so are the American people. Hill staffers predict that if the bill is not passed by mid-March, then it will no longer be an attainable goal.

Given the choices, what would you do?


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Does the Health Care Bill work for OOB?

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On November 7th, the House of Representatives passed the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” which is actually the amalgamation of three different health care bills. The bill passed by a vote of 240-194, which included 1 Republican. (A fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi used to proclaim the bill to be bi-partisan.)

The bill’s purpose is to “provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending.” President Obama called the passage of the bill “courageous” while many detractors are decrying it as “fiscally irresponsible.”

At a reported 2,000 pages there is plenty in the bill to support and plenty to question. For example, I have a medical condition that I have to manage on a day-to-day basis. It is of the utmost importance to me that there is no pre-existing condition clause for my health insurance. This fact has a major effect on what job(s) I choose and God forbid if I were to lose my job and the health insurance that goes with it. So making it illegal to deny coverage due to a pre-existing condition is something that I strongly support.

As artists we may not get health insurance through our jobs. So providing health insurance that is actually affordable would be a very empowering thing for our community. It could provide the opportunity for us to cut ties with unwanted day jobs and allow us to pursue our artistic aspirations while still caring for our health.

On the other hand, there are items in the bill that don’t quite add up for me, such as requiring everyone to have health insurance and if they don’t they are fined. So what happens to the poor folks that can’t afford food, let alone health insurance? Would the government seriously add to their financial woes by levying a fine upon them?

The bill still needs to pass the Senate, where changes will undoubtedly be made. Assuming it passes the Senate, a committee will have to reconcile the bill that the House passed and the bill passed by the Senate. Then both the House and the Senate will have to vote on and pass the reconciled bill again before it will make it to Obama’s desk. So, we have a long way yet to go.

Granted I have not read the bill in detail – although I’ve downloaded it and have started reviewing it.

I am wondering, what are your health care concerns? As an independent artist, what parts of this bill work for you and your family and what parts don’t?



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