Affordable Care Act's Survival is a Victory for the Creative Economy
Submitted by Steve on June 29, 2012
From The Huffington Post, Adam Hutler, Executive Director of Fractured Atlas, outlines why the survival of the Affordable Care Act is good news for artists in the U.S.:
Our community offers a preview of the 21st century labor force. Untethered by traditional employment relationships, artists are mobile, independent, and compensated based on the fruits of their intellectual labors. They are also chronically underpaid and, when it comes to traditional employment benefits like health insurance, largely expected to fend for themselves.
Due to historical quirks of a dysfunctional health care system -- namely that it has relied primarily on employment-based coverage -- over 600,000 American artists are uninsured. Those who do have insurance often must purchase it on the individual market, where they have faced higher rates, medical underwriting that denies coverage because of existing conditions, and opaque bureaucracies whose sole purpose is to avoid paying claims.