Back In The Swing Of Things...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
A fairly awesome vacation was had; always nice to see my nieces, who are, I’m sad to say, far cooler than all other kids, including yours. The only truly remarkable thing is that I live in Phoenix, and went to the Oregon coast to get a sunburn. If you’ve visited the Oregon coast, you’ll know immediately how ludicrous that statement is.
Trying to get all caught up on Audio Damage stuff, plus the various contracts I have out currently. I basically stepped off the plane and right back in to the Pixel Mines. Such is the life of a user interface designer, I suppose. Not as glamorous as being a rock star, but it certainly is far more likely to pay the bills, and that ain’t nothing.
Which brings us to a somewhat more somber subject. Our good friend Adam Jay, who posts here often, had a pretty bad health problem a couple weeks ago that involved a run to the ER, several days in the ICU and lots of follow-up treatment. Adam is a professional musician, and thus, like all professional musicians, he doesn’t have health insurance. The bills from this emergency treatment are fairly alarming, and Adam is really in a bind.
He has started an Indiegogo campaign to help defray the costs of this whole extravaganza, and it falls to us to help a brother out, in the same way that we’d want to be helped if we were in a similar situation. One of the tiers in the campaign is a vinyl EP created from recordings of the hospital gear he made while in the ICU, which is, I think, both crafty and cool.
So do the right thing and hook Adam up. We often speak here about how the public-at-large expects us to entertain them, while continually giving us the fuzzy end of the lollipop. We have to take care of our own, and Adam is one of us, and needs our help.
24 comments
I'm sorry to be the devil's advocate and fully DO NOT intend this to sound overly critical...I know that getting stacked with medical bills SUCKS no matter what your income level or employment status.
But why don't most musicians have health insurance?
Especially relatively young ones like Adam?
I get that most musicians aren't exactly swimming in money (raises hand, as I do not have a Scrooge McDuck money room either, and while I am technically a professional musician I certainly have to hold a source of regular income to keep the bills paid), but I manage to buy health insurance on my own (my employer is a small company, and frankly...the benefits suck and because they employ a disproportionate amount of old people with health problems...the health insurance I can get through them is mediocre and excessively expensive for a healthy person at my tender age of 27). The plan I have now, while not "great" is still better than what I can get through my employer and at $70/month, costs less than I am willing to bet many musician's smartphone and/or cable bills are...
I truly do not intend to come off "holier than thou," I do not envy Adam's situation one bit...but I do think young people need to look at their frivolous expenses and weigh them against what could happen if this situation were turned on them. My singer is the same way...mid 30's...appendix burst while on the road with another band...no insurance. He was lucky enough that the band he was "roady-ing" for could front the bill...but retrospectively not to judge but...he definitely has a lot of "luxury" expenses that most regular guys can't afford...which he chose over health insurance.
Being a UK expat I'm not totally clued-up on US health insurance, i get mine through my wife's policy (which she gets via the university), but if you can get reasonable health insurance for $70 a month why is there even a fucking debate in this country?
I just find it hard to believe that a self employed musician could get solid coverage for that. Regardless, the bastards never pay anyway.
That's certainly a fair point. Speaking strictly for myself, I reached the age where I discovered I wasn't indestructible at roughly the same time I got married. A female that is able to procreate is... uh... expensive, vis-a-vis health insurance. We've never been able to afford it, and don't have it now. It may seem like I'm fairly well-off, but I live in a very cheap part of the country, and we live pretty frugally. To get something that doesn't have a $10K deductible (that is to say more or less pointless) for both of us is a grand a month, easily. That's equal to my rent (already a quarter of my net income), and greater than all my other monthly bills combined, including my car payment.
We accept a certain amount of risk living this lifestyle, of course. That's to be expected.
-CR
Yes, females of procreating age are definitely a different world entirely as far as health insurance goes... Even with insurance...my wife is not on my plan but she was in the hospital just recently, one cat scan and some blood work set us back over $2k. Without insurance it would have been $8k.
Chris -
I definitely have assumed that you also are not "swimming in Scrooge McDuck riches well off", as in my experience with the professional musicians I do work with has shown me, it takes a pretty seriously successful band (talking multi-platinum selling regularly doing big tours) to afford what I would consider a "modest" luxury (slightly above middle class but not super rich....someone truly able to live on their music/art alone, and support their family with it). Most professional musicians that I would say have had pretty successful points in their careers but not the momentum I have noticed if they did not have a fallout plan (or a comeback after getting dumped from their label in the late 90s early 00s) they currently live in or below what I (and most people making more than 20 hours a week at minimum wage, I assume) consider poverty.
We are very lucky in New Zealand to still have a mostly free health care system. It may not be perfect but at least if I nearly die all I have to worry about is getting better... not how am I going to pay for it!
I bought the vinyl EP and gave a little bit extra. Regardless of the augments for and against health insurance... I'm happy to show solidarity for a brother in need.
- Hugo
$70 a month for insurance. Lucky you. The insurance at my work would be more than double (might be closer to triple...I just laughed when they told me the number) that, and I work for a non-profit, so I assure you I don't make much.
Add in the high deductible and sure, you can get insurance, but you're basically getting catastrophic insurance that still wouldn't even come close to taking care of a bill like the one Adam got smacked with. And by the way, the $20k is AFTER the uninsured discount. Sit with that one for a minute.
Quite frankly, if it was that bloody easy to afford insurance in the US, we wouldn't have almost 50 million people without it. So it's easy to sit and throw anecdotal comments out, but that's exactly what your experience is: anecdotal, and obviously not useful for extrapolating out the factors that cause the larger problem of a severe lack of healthcare for most people.
Kslight, I don't think you meant any of that in an attack-y way, but I get a bee in my bonnet every time someone says "well this is MY experience and surely my experience is applicable to everyone". Except it's not. And that is all-too-common but fairly faulty reasoning.
Anyway, I could argue this particular topic for days, but really the pertinent point I want to make is that armchair quarterbacking is all well and good, but this happened, and here we are. Thanks to everyone that helps out. You have no idea how appreciated it is, by Adam and by his friends. Much love, y'all.
ASCAP used to have a really great plan through CIGNA. (I had the dental, which was outstanding. Couldn't afford the medical at the time.) However, around 1999 they switched to some bullshit clearing house, and the premiums went _way_ up. This wasn't ASCAP's fault, per se. Rather, CIGNA cancelled the plan that we were able to get.
In any event, as DJ Shiva says, lots of people can come out of the woodwork and say "well, this works fine for me!!!" A 25-year-old fit white male with no health problems, a normal middle-class lifestyle, who doesn't smoke and hasn't ever had bad credit or been in trouble with the law will be able to get a pretty good plan, because the law of averages (which rules insurance) says that he won't be much burden on the system.
Hardly any musicians fit in that pigeonhole. I know quite a few myself, and I'm not personally aware of any that have insurance that they don't get from their spouse's job.
-CR
One of the main reasons I don't "go for it" as a professional musician is this right here. I have 2 kids and a wife to support. Perhaps we could maybe live off the indie musician's shoestring budget, but health insurance is so important to us.
I wish the world was a far different place. Good luck to your friend.
my insurance is pretty shitty and it costs $3k a year. it's all i could get because of pre-existing conditions. great how that works isn't it? "oh you need insurance because you have health problems? fuck you.. you can't have it.. well.. maybe you can have this really shitty insurance that doesn't cover much.. we'll let you have that"
anyway - a person w/o pre-exiting conditions will be able to get insurance once that portion of the health care law phases in. they won't be able to turn you down for that anymore.
my brother just got insured again and his bill is like $350+ a month. non smoker, no health issues or existing chronic conditions. his coverage is good and deductible is reasonable. more or less it's what you'd get if you worked for a decent corporation.
if you have a family then multiply that $350+ a month per person in your family.. more or less. try doing that while creating a college fund or planning a 2 week vacation or dealing with any of the other random crap that comes up in life... you need to be firmly middle class or have a really generous employer or have catastrophe coverage only.. the options aren't really plentiful for preventative healthcare... debt is common even for people who have coverage.
ok.. i'll shut up now..
No I got the "after uninsured discount" part. A regular insurance plan would likely knock his initial bill down 80% (+ or - depending on the plan) and I think would likely have made this situation better.
Maybe he CAN'T get reasonably priced insurance, I'm not saying that my experience fits all...but you know I get the impression that many don't even try if their employer doesn't offer it.
And if you have some serious pre-existing conditions, yeah you are going to get screwed if you try to get health insurance...that is why you would want to get it from your employer. A guy at work is around 50 and has ALS....his insurance would be absolutely stupendous if he couldn't get it through work...if he could get insurance at all. His constant chemo treatments to keep his condition under control I'm sure are just astronomical.
You are right about that - many people don't even try unless it's offered. It's a bureaucratic nightmare upon first glance. Chris pointed out how good ASCAP's plan used to be - and it was. It's the only insurance I've ever had as a musician. It was relatively easy to sign up.
I have a good friend who is a percussionist and his wife plays for a small symphony. Long story short, they do the having baby thing and are pretty much forced to figure out state funded healthcare. It was a nightmare for them to get started and get through the hurdles of nonsense - but now that they have it, works great for them.
It's out there. Somewhere.
From where I sit (Canada), this is so sad and fucked up.
And what Hugo said...
It should be noted to our foreign readers a couple of things. First, if you have a problem that requires an emergency room visit, all hospitals have to take you. In a situation where you're broke, the doctor will likely waive his fee, as doctors swear an oath to take care of people, and they take that shit seriously for the most part. (Historically, doctors at Catholic hospitals are more likely to do this, but in general, they mostly do.) And the doctor's fee is usually about half of any given procedure.
Second, we have mechanisms in place for people that can't afford health care that, while nightmarish to implement, will generally take care of things.
And third, our taxes here are much, much lower than those of other first world countries. Theoretically (or mathematically) this means that we can use the difference to pay for what your higher taxes already pay for.
I am in no possible way defending our system. I was, and am, a gigantic supporter of the single payer system that the Clintons tried to pass in 1994, which was more or less the same as the UK's NHS, and my mother's health problems (which essentially ruined her financially, although there were mitigating circumstances) have left me with a serious hatred of America's health care system.
That said (and here I'm imagining a rant from Adam, who knows far more about this subject than I, as I've been healthy my whole life, other than that brief situation with Valley Fever last year) the Affordable Care Act should help things immensely. It is not totally implemented yet, and already is showing verifiable improvements. I reserve judgement until 2015, at which point my wife and I will actually have health insurance that we can theoretically afford, and which will theoretically cover most issues.
-CR
I was healthy my whole life too until I got cancer. No risk factors, no family history, no nothing. It happens. And it sucks. I am lucky enough to currently have the best health insurance of my life from my day job or I'd be fucked. And not only fucked from the immediate cost of treatment, but fucked from the YEARS of follow up and surveillance that is now required to maintain my health.
I urge anybody who doesn't think they can afford it or thinks "Nah, I'm healthy" to rethink that strategy. When I freelanced, I had a reasonable but generally catastrophic BlueCross plan and I paid $120/month for it. Rethink the coffees, the red bulls, the cigarettes, the shiny new gear, the meals out, the smart phones, the WHATEVER. Make yourself afford it. Get insured sooner rather than later. The immediate pain of less money in your pocket will pale in comparison to the potential of being truly financially fucked (or dead).
The last thing you want in the midst of the desperation of a real, life-threatening health event is the added stress of figuring out how you're going to pay for your care. Or how you'll live with crushing debt should you make it out the other side. Any of you who make even the most modest of incomes, please, please figure out a way to get yourself insured.
I hope Adam recovers fully and prospers.
-kslight-
You are seriously deluded, and I mean that in the nicest way, not that you are a jerk. I am self employed and I pay $800 a month for 2 healthy adults who've rarely gone to the doctor in 20 years, with a $5000 dollar deductible. It goes up by $100 a month every year like clockwork. Insurance never pays a cent of anything on the occasions we do go to the doctor. My insurance payment and my mortgage are probably 90% of my bills. We have seriously though about not having any insurance but know that we would lose everything if there were an emergency. I would cry real tears if I could get insurance for $70 a month.
I am hoping that the ACA is just a first step to national health care, and I believe that is the intent. Otherwise I will start punching people on the street.
bb
I bought the album. I thought the name sounded familiar and realized that I downloaded a remix track he posted on a forum a few years ago. I was the only time I've ever downloaded and kept a track from a "show us your stuff" forum, and it's still in my iTunes.
bb
From my experience with insurance in the last few years, there is a kind of "anti-sweet-spot" where the cost of the hospitalization is so close to the insurance deductible that having insurance might be kind of a wash. However, anything beyond that, and the insurance pays for itself.
I could graph this out, and prove to myself that our family has stayed in the "knee" of these costs for the past few years, but I think it would be far too depressing. Fortunately, our local Children's Hospital has great care, and a large enough donation base that getting on a payment plan is trivial.
definitely in the 'too poor to afford insurance' camp at the moment. i've been urged to find some catastrophic insurance by folks but as i had to apply for UI in CA there's not currently a lot to go around to dedicate to this. i do hope the ACA stays passed long enough for it to actually start, but i wonder how i'll even be able to afford $250/month to pay for subsidized insurance for me and my wife, and yet not qualify for any further aid because we make too much money. we were even recently priced out of the county HealthPAC because we're making just slightly over 2X Fed poverty level (which is generous to provide, i know) yet to qualify would require too much belt-tightening. it's definitely a dilemma, and largely why i'm breaking out of part-time faculty teaching to other freelance work. best of luck to Adam and my sympathies - it's rough out there.
$70 a month for decent medical insurance? Hahahaha! You've got to be fucking kidding me. Probably only 1% of the population has access to insurance that cheap. I'm young and healthy and I pay twice that for very crappy HMO insurance with a deductible in the thousands.
bongo_x - i hope you are right... the only thing that makes sense is a single payer system. it's the only thing that will really fix the problem. we'd just have to count on congress to totally clusterfuck it up though.
i almost moved to canada in 2004. i love where i am but sometimes think i'd have been better off if i'd made my way north at all costs. not just for healthcare of course..
anyway - we do have a single payer system that is really quite fucking good for the most part.. only problem is.. you have to be 65 yrs old to enjoy the benefits.
i got my rebate check because of the healthcare law.. it was $122.29
i'll take it! the rebate is calculated based on how much your insurance company spends on administration. the 80/20 rule. so, now, it's law that a company that spends more than 20% of your premium on administration is forced to give you some money back. it's a way to push them to be not so top heavy with douchebags who push paper and to focus on spending money on patient care.
a step in the right direction. how many VP's does a company need?
so, if you get no refund or a small refund it means that your insurance company is not so top heavy. take it as a good sign. {shrug}
{soapbox}
the obama administration and the democrats really missed the boat though. they had both houses of congress and the presidency. they should have rammed through all the shit they needed to instead of this watered down healthcare bill. that's what the republicans do. they get in lock step and push their agenda. but, obama was trying to gather consensus and reach across the aisle and ya know.. democrats in congress are fucking short sighted idiots who couldn't seize the moment if it was wrapped in girlie white cotton panties
{/soapbox}
anyway - the bill is a step in the right direction. it makes some nice changes and will hopefully make it easier for people to get and keep insurance they can afford.
I wish I could afford to do more - I was only able to buy the WAV digi version... but we gotta stick together.
We can debate the ins & outs of why people are or aren't insured - I have spent portions of my life very well insured (when I was working plush corporate jobs), and other portions of my life where I wasn't insured at all.
All I know is that one of our brothers needs us to stand with him - so that is what we should do.
@ kslight. I was not intending to refer to someone who repeatedly is a danger to others in traffic, but to one that would be punished the same as someone who IS, and translating this into the world of health insurance that deals with things very differently compared to the world of auto insurance. Yes, you are correct, it is much easier to avoid long term effects from bad things you do in traffic, compared to things related to your health. My question is where you draw the line, in health insurance. There's so much this country and its people could do in order to create a much more healthy nation, yet there are not so many insurance incentives (except not smoking), like there are for good things you can do to protect others, yourself, other people's cars and your car in the world of auto insurance.
Big corporate/pharma don't make money off of healthy people, the way the system works. I was not so much 'complaining about my high deductible' as voicing my opinion of how ridiculous the whole health care system is in this country, Obamacare or not.
Yeah, I was in the ER a couple of times here at a time when I didn't have insurance. After divulging my financial status at the time I ended up paying a very small portion of those bills and was done with it. The U.S. Government paid for the rest. For a while there I felt I was back in Europe. This was a while ago.
Just had to mention that the whole point of the Obamacare bill (and the Romneycare that it was based on) is to create net LOWER health care premiums and tax rates because there aren't any more freeloaders in the system. Taxes (supposedly) fall or at least stay the same because the government no longer has to bail out the hospitals for taking care of people without insurance. Insurance rates (supposedly) fall or don't increase because the insurance companies are receiving more money because of the increased number of clients. In theory this type of universal mandate makes freeloading impossible while making sure that everybody is covered in some way, and still allowing the insurance companies to stack mad paper. That's why the Republicans invented the idea a couple of decades ago. If insurance companies increase their premiums it is not because of the mandate, it's because they are greedy sons of bitches. Obamacare style mandated coverage is the conservatives position. Always has been until the Tea Party wack-jobs decided that Reagan's domestic policies smacked of liberal/socialist ideas and drug the Republican party into the stone ages politically. The reason that Obama went for this system at all, was the long shot hope that this could baby step the country into Universal health care. What the Clinton's tried to get passed in the 90's was the best form of health care that one could hope for in this country, and we should feel ashamed as a nation that we never pushed it through.
-William
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