Obamacare and the musician: a user’s guide
mainIt is estimated that 43 percent of US musicians carry no health insurance. If you are, or know, one of the uninsured, read this.
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The link seems to be to an article about the Vienna State Opera’s announcement of live streaming. (Am I missing something?)
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Excellent and most useful article. The greatest enemies of Obamacare in the USA are the medical profession and for-profit health care institutions (aka hospitals) now traded on Wall Street like gold or orange juice. Their congressional lobby is very powerful.
If POTUS Obama is remembered for only one thing, this health care initiative, his place in history is secure, IMHO. The Clintons tried and failed 20 years ago. All free-lancers in every profession, including musicians and other performing artists, will long remember Oct. 17, 2013 when the efforts to defund this plan were finally defeated.
What, you really think they will give up now?
Funny thing (or perhaps not so much . . . . ) – the GOP counter to the Clinton plan was basically what the Affordable Care Act is today. Very short memories in DC.
A lot of those in the medical profession who are unhappy about the ACA are single-payer advocates, like my surgeon husband. At the very least, a public option among those for-profit plans would have been a nice way to expand the health insurance market. Go to the Physicians for a National Health Plan website to learn more about the type of medical system that the majority of physicians, based on polling, would like to see implemented in the US.
http://www.pnhp.org/
I wanted to add that I am grateful that my 26 year old son, a violinist, will be able to purchase affordable health insurance due to the ACA.
great article. Thanks for sharing.. i don’t think obamacare can do well.
It is much too early to draw any conclusions. Legislation as ill-conceived as this will likely spawn a host of unintended consequences. Better to wait a few years to see what percentage of musicians are covered, what this ‘coverage’ consists of and how satisfied people are with it.
The coverage (no need for ironic quotes) is similar to polices that have been sold for a long time in this country with some new additional protections spelled out. No need to “wait a few years”, you can read what it is today.