Last week John Prine announced that he has lung cancer (non-small cell carcinoma of the lung, if you’re interested in the details). I was planning to see his December concert in Louisville, which has been moved to next spring but the news caught my attention for another reason.
Whenever I hear about an artist with health problems, I always wonder if they have health insurance. None of my business, I know, but I still wonder, and hope that the songwriter or painter or writer has the money to get access to care. It’s easy to understand why many don’t, given the nature of creative work. The Future of Music Coalition surveyed 3,400 artists this fall to get an answer to this question. As you would imagine, as freelance workers with variable incomes, many artists don’t have health insurance. The survey found that:
- 43 percent of the artists surveyed do not currently have health insurance, more than double the national estimate of 18 percent
- Of those respondents who do have health insurance, 39 percent pay for it themselves, much higher than the estimated 6 percent of the general population that pays for private, non-group insurance
- Of uninsured respondents, 88 percent say the primary reason they don’t have insurance is that they can’t afford it
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The research also showed that among all respondents – dancers, actors, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers – musicians were the least likely to be insured — less than 50 percent had coverage. The study also found that the more income musicians get from their art, the less likely they are to have insurance.
The report concludes: “With vast swaths of the community currently uninsured, and many either self-employed, low income, or under 65, self-employed artists are exactly who the Affordable Care Act is designed to help.” The Future of Music has a web site designed to help artists get coverage under the ACA.
This is the main reason I support the ACA: so creative people can get health insurance. Not just musicians and sculptors, but entrepreneurs, researchers, and writers too. I’m not saying they should get free insurance. As a country, we should make it easier for self-employed people taking risks on their ideas to buy health insurance. We cannot worship at the entrepreneurial temple and then ask people to die pursuing their ideas.
Prine has been doing this for almost four decades, and he is 67. So, he is not representative of the artists in this survey, and he is covered by Medicare. But many musicians – Alejandro Escovedo, Chris Whitley, Tim Krekel – have fought and often lost serious health challenges. Sweet Relief is a charity that offers financial assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability or age-related problems. It was started by Victoria Williams, a songwriter who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while on tour with Neil Young.
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Yes, you could say, “It was her choice to be a musician. She could have gotten a real job with insurance, like I did.” But this is a weak argument given the power of music. If a song has ever brightened your day or helped you understand your life or just made you dance, you owe something to the musician for her work. I am happy to have my tax dollars go to a subsidy to help a musician pay for health insurance.
If you said, “Who is John Prine?” pick one of these videos and see what you’ve been missing.
Prine wrote “Angel From Montgomery,” although you probably know the Bonnie Raitt version.
“Sam Stone” is a tribute to Vietnam veterans.
“Paradise” is melancholy with a political twist.
“Illegal Smile” is from one of his first albums.