Health Care & Benefits

It should come as no surprise that the upcoming open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be a large source of stress for organizations that provide health care benefits along with individual musicians and arts managers responsible for purchasing their own insurance. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to recommend along the lines of resources to help alleviate that anxiety. Manufactured instability in the healthcare marketplace along with drastic cuts …

Read moreLooking For Resources to Help Understand ACA Changes?

Yesterday’s post, Channeling Your Rage Over Health Care Costs, produced some fascinating discussion by way of social media and one topic in particular that emerged was the conflict created by an orchestral employer offering one level of health care to musicians and something entirely different to administrative employees, the latter of which is typically comprised of two tiers: “executives” (top tier employees) and “staffers” (entry to middle tier employees). After some …

Read moreWhy Do Orchestras Carry Different Health Plans For Musician And Admin Employees?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last several months, you’re likely aware that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) launch was a clusterfuck of gargantuan scale. That sort of language isn’t common here and it is used now to reinforce just how wretched of an experience it has been interacting with the ACA’s primary point of contact known as HealthCare.gov. Nonetheless, after months of trying I was finally able to …

Read moreMy Experiences With HealthCare.Gov

In the wake of a Facebook rant on the increase my healthcare insurance provider proposed this year, just north of 20 percent, a few colleagues wrote to ask my opinion on whether or not the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have any impact on small to mid size budget orchestras. I can’t claim to be an ACA expert and I would be surprised if anyone would be able to provide a …

Read moreSome Thoughts On Healthcare Costs And Orchestras