Obamacare Offers Musicians A Lifeline— If They Can Understand It
Musicians, uninsured at greater rates than the general population in the United States, are coming to grasp the impact of the Affordable Care Act, the health-care reform law known as Obamacare. But like most Americans, they have a lot of learning to do.
A new survey found that 43% of creative artists and 53% of musicians lack health insurance. Conducted in July and August by the Future of Music Coalition and the Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center, the survey covers musicians as well as visual artists, filmmakers, actors and other creative professionals. Previous FMC surveys found 42% and 33% of musicians were uninsured in 2002 and 2010, respectively.
Unfortunately, artists aren’t well-informed about the nuts and bolts of Obamacare. The FMC/AHIRC survey found that 55% of artists “don’t understand it at all” or are “unsure” how the law would affect them. That number jibes with a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey that found 47% of Americans have enough information on health-care reform to understand how it will affect them and their families.
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