I am considered an "Independent Contractor" All actors are. I might get hired to do a show but I'm not an employee I'm no different than a carpenter or plumber - except they make $80/hour. I make a little less than $15/hour (if you are non union it's more like $3-$5/hour.) A wage many Americans believe is way over the top for actors.
I cannot afford private health insurance. I tried that route over a decade ago and I couldn't afford it then (roughly $250/mos) I know for a fact I couldn't afford it now and I'm sure prices have only gone up. Those I know who pay for insurance out of pocket pay $400 - $600/mos + co-pays.
I am well educated and have a 4 year college degree.
I earn between $5000 to $8000 a year depending on what work I can find. Yes, that is five thousand to eight thousand. There are no zeros missing. I earn roughly $400 - $600/mos BEFORE taxes.
I do not own a car.
Due to credit card interest rates and what I call designer fees - those fees that are added on for no specific reason I am in debt I don't seem able to escape. I once had a low credit card balance that I was close to paying off. I am now carrying $6500 in credit card debt and can't get ahead.
I do not work in an office or any other job that looks like a typical "9 - 5" (if there ever was such a thing.)
I have worked at a few offices in various industries as low or middle management - so I could have health insurance. I traded my career and opportunities for health insurance. I experienced "rationing." I was "free" to chose my own doctor so long as they were pre-approved by the insurance company - which is to say my "free choice" was limited - very, very, very limited.
Those trade offs helped pay the bills yet still left me financially struggling. I didn't earn enough to have any savings, everything went to rent, utilities, school loans, public transportation, and food. These trade offs also left me physically and mentally ill from severe stress - unable to perform my "real" job well and unable to perform in my "chosen career" very well either. Leaving them was not a choice I made easily or took lightly but it came down, ironically, to my health.
Actors Equity offers health insurance to actors who have 12 weeks of work with companies that pay into the insurance plan. Most shows these days are roughly 5 weeks. So you need 3 shows in 12 consecutive months at eligible companies. If you qualify it costs $400/year + co-pays. Your choice of doctors is limited to the pre approved list, your procedures are rationed and you must continue to keep working as they review your work weeks every quarter. So long as you have 12 work weeks at eligible theaters - looking back each quarter -- you're good to go, otherwise, you get placed on COBRA - i.e. you pay out of pocket, and if you still don't get any work you are off the roles.
I have only once in my 20 year career had 12 weeks of eligible work. I do not normally have enough weeks or if I do they are not with companies that pay into the Union's insurance so I do not qualify for health insurance thru my Union.
I don't currently have any life threatening health issues that I am aware of. I do not have any chronic conditions like diabetes or asthma or high blood pressure. I do have allergies. I have recently had several benign diseases that are "typical" of someone for my gender / age.
Due to some of these benign diseases I have spent a lot of time in hospitals and doctors' offices this past year. I am certain about 50% of that time was what the medical industry calls "defensive" medicine. That is to say while we were all "mostly" sure I didn't have anything life threatening there was still an outside chance - and if I was the 1 in the "1 in a million" I could potentially sue the pants off them for NOT testing me, even though we we were all "pretty sure" it was nothing serious.
I was in Dallas on a job one time and became seriously ill. I started to black out and was taken to an ER. I contacted my primary doctor on my release so they would know what happened. My then insurance company declined to pay for the visit stating I should have seen my Primary Doctor before going to the ER. Apparently the fact that I live in Philadelphia and was ill in Dallas Texas made no difference.
I was told I was overusing the ER. At the time I had only been to the ER twice in my life and that was about 15 yeas prior to this incident.
I am on a list serv for women who have a similar condition as my own. Many, many women post that their insurance providers decline to pay for a less dramatic treatment. Many of these women are also limited as to which Doctors they can see and how long they must wait for treatment. That's happening right now - here in the USA.
I have been very fortunate these past 10 years or so to be covered by my partner's health insurance, including dental insurance.
My partner's company is on financially rocky ground right now much like every other small business in America.
Our dental insurance was recently canceled because my partner's company had been in arrears with the dental insurance company several times this past year. So, once they were all paid up they were dropped. No discussion.
How long before the company drops health coverage? OR gets dropped by the insurance company? What if they go under where do I or my partner get insurance? ; Because now I have a bucket load of "pre existing" conditions.
So here's what I think...for those who already have some sort of employer based insurance ask yourself how long can they keep that up? How long before it is just "too expensive" or they begin to take larger chunks out of your paycheck?
What are your options if your employer drops health insurance coverage? Are you so sure? Have you ever actually called around to try and find insurance? Ever asked how much, what they cover, and what happens if you end up needing to use it?
Are you someone who thinks that only the poor / black/Hispanic and illegal aliens are trying to get on the health care system? Really? Try meeting ANYONE in any artistic field and ask about their health care coverage. Ask anyone who has been downsized /l aid off / fired recently and now works as a "consultant" or "free lance."
Why is it OK to spend billions and trillions of dollars on various wars but zero on our own people?
Are we not Americans? Why can't we take care of our own? What is wrong with us? I hear daily rants from the Religious Right about family values and what would Jesus do. I think Jesus would take care of everybody. I think there is good evidence to support that idea in the Bible.
Why is national health care evil yet a FREE and PUBLIC education - one that is enjoyed by millions of Americans -- is expected?
I don't see anyone talking about the socialist library - you know the FREE PUBLIC library system that was started by FOUNDING FATHER BENJAMIN FRANKLIN?
You have no issues with the free highway system. You sure as hell expect the Fire company to come to your house if you have a fire - I don't see anyone proposing that putting out fires is socialist and insisting on privately operated fire companies.
And why not? Because it is the right thing to do when one lives in a civilized society. See, I always thought being American meant we looked out for our own. We took care of our people, we understand that education and public safety - of which health and health care is part and parcel, are part of being in a community. The community of America.
Instead, in my lifetime, under the banner of AMERICA we have become more divided than ever - every man/woman/child/ for themselves. United we stand? Fuck that I am my own special island of independence. Let those European, hippie-commie- countries take care of their sick and elderly and kids and send their kids to college and graduate school. Let them find ways of being energy independent. This is AMERICA and here in AMERICA we PAY through the nose for everything privately. We get into bed with large oil, we underfund our schools and cut their programs, take away viable grants and financial aid for our kids to go to college. This is 21st century AMERICA this is not our hippie- commie past when we gave homes and college opportunities to GI's - NO FUCKING WAY! NOT IN MY AMERICA! You want to go to college GI then pony up $30000, buy a house on your own damn time and stop looking for a handout.
I am ashamed of my fellow citizens who can't look past their own nose and see we need to come together as a nation. We are ALL Americans and we are all equally deserving of a better life - better than we have now and better than before. We can't do it privately. We need each other.
I happen to feel that making a profit off someone's life and heath is extremely immoral and as about UN AMERICAN as it gets.
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