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Artists look for ways to fill the benefits chasm
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
December 6, 2002

Sometimes health benefits for artists come in the form of other benefits: benefit concerts, benefit shows, benefit bakesales. Many artists who are making a living with their art, don't qualify for low income health benefits, but can't meet the payments for regular insurance. But there are other options.

St. Paul, Minn. — It's saddening to note that over the last year or more, several high profile Minnesota artists have struggled with some kind of health crisis in their lives. Actor and writer Kevin Kling's near fatal motorcycle accident last year comes to mind. Tragically, blues legend Dave Ray lost his battle with cancer just over a week ago. Singer Prudence Johnson says a wave of illness has spread through her circle of friends.

"I can count thirteen friends of mine with cancer, actually, in the last two years. All but one of those is a professional artist of some kind."

That circle includes one of Johnson's closest friends, singer songwriter and cabaret host Leslie Ball, who was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"The day that she told me that she had thyroid cancer, one of my first thoughts was well she can't afford that," Johnson says. "Even though she does have some insurance through her teaching job, there's gonna be a lot of expenses coming up, that she just wouldn't have the money to deal with otherwise and I didn't want to see her go way into debt."

Johnson quickly organized two benefits for Ball, and the response was overwelming. But it was yet another example of what's historically been a common occurrence in any arts community, artists staging benefits for their under or uninsured fellow artists.

What options do artists have in terms of health care coverage? Chris Osgood, director of artist services at Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul, deals with this issue every week. MPR asked Osgood what percentage of the artists he works with are flying wthout a health insurance net.

CO-"Unofficially off the top of my head, I would say over half. Well over half of the people that we work with have no health insurance."

MPR-"Is that partly because they don't have partners or spouses who's health care plans they can latch onto?

CO-"Yeah that's right. Or, it's something that they just haven't thought of before. It's something all you artists need to know is you can usually in most cases get some kind of health care based on the artistic discipline that you're a part of. If you're a performing artist there's insurance for performers through various national groups. You need to become a member, but the membership fee is small compared to the big upside of being with what the insurance companies call a self-selecting group. It really varies from discipline to discipline but there're a lot of options for joining national groups. Once you join a national group, you become a part of a bigger pool and are much more insurable.

MPR-"Is that a feasible alternative for most artists, joining a national group?

CO-"It's a feasible alternative for many artists and I think it's a good place to start. It's something that people write off because they either don't know about it or don't think about it. So something I would urge people to do is if you're looking for long term insurance, give us a call at Springboard, let us know the kind of artist you are, and we can probably put you in touch with a national organization that may offer some kind of health insurance. It's a good place to start."

Osgood says artists who don't qualify for national pool insurance have other options. In the Twin Cities, there are two county run programs, Metro East in Ramsey County, and Assured Care in Hennepin County. Metro East connects people to programs based on their needs and income level. Assured Care provides discounted health care based on income and family size. And then, Osgood says, there's the statewide health insurance program for low income people called Minnesota Care.

CO-"Minnesota Care is a relatively great opportunity to become insured for low cost, if you have low income. And that's another place that we send people. Some of the artists we serve are lucky enough to make more money and are over the threshold for Minnesota Care. That's when we start to talk about private insurers, that kind of thing."

MPR-"But are those artists you speak of in a situation where they make too much money for Minnesota Care, but perhaps not enough money to really take advantage of a national health insurance group?"

CO-"Well there is unfortunately sort of a yawning chasm between the two. Yeah, that is a problem and for a lot of the people that come to see us at Springboard that's exactly where they are. They're making enough of an income so they can make ends meet, but if they get covered by a national insurer and go with them privately, it's such a big bite out of their small income. Especially with the artists whom we serve. People have erratic incomes. They're not making the same amount of money every two weeks or every month, so having that big payment for health insurance is problematic."

MPR-"Do you think the health insurance resources that artists have in Minnesota are adequate? What else do we need?"

CO-"That's a great question. The first thing, I would say is something that would span that little chasm from Minnesota Care on the low end to what's affordable for low income people slightly higher up, that we would be in much better shape. It's easy for me to make that comment, sort of like Mark Twain says, 'It's easy for everyone to talk about the weather, but no-one ever does anything about it.' Maybe we can. Maybe there is a way to extend the threshold of MinnesotaCare up a few thousand dollars, or up enough to be inclusive of these people. The next thing I would look at is make sure that artists of every discipline are represented at the national level or the state level, because it's spotty. Some artists of some disciplines have a lot more options than other ones, and everyone again, rather than getting into a laundry list of how it works, give us a call or e-mail us at Springboard and we will help you get started. But that would be the first thing I would look at: trying to change those thresholds.

MPR: It sounds like Minnesota is a pretty good place for artists to be if they need healthcare.

CO: Minnesota is still a great state to get sick in. It is! Compared to other places in the United States certainly. We have a long way to go compared with artistic communities in Europe and the rest of the First World. European friends of mine when I talk to them about the challenges of being a creative person here are amazed at out lack of healthcare anf how seemingly unconcerned we are about it. And frankly most people are unconcerned about it until it happens to them, or until it happens to somebody they know and love.

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