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By Nikki Hunt
Published on Creative Exchange, 10/3/2016

After three years helping artists get health insurance through Springboard for the Arts’Artists’ Access to Healthcare program, I should be overjoyed that our country’s uninsured rate is at an all-time low. But, I can’t bring myself to celebrate because I know that simply having health insurance isn’t enough. We all need better access to healthcare.

If anyone should feel the full benefit of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s artists. Prior to the ACA, artists didn’t have a guaranteed opportunity to get insured on the individual market; now they do. In addition, many artists’ incomes are low enough to qualify for discounts on their insurance. As a result, the uninsured rate for artists—which used to be nearly twice as high as the general population—is now in line with the national average (of around 9%).

Yet, one out of three artists I see struggles to afford insurance that will not help them pay for routine care when sick or injured. And they’re not alone. 31% of Americans delay needed medical care because of the cost, according to a 2015 Gallup poll, and this has remained essentially unchanged for the past decade, despite the Affordable Care Act.

Why? Because a few other things haven’t changed.

Read more here.