Health Insurance
The AHIRC Directory
The Artists' Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC) is a project of The Actors Fund. It is a source of up-to-date, comprehensive, and unbiased health care resources for artists, performers, freelancers, and the self-employed. Here you can find information about health insurance options in your own state, alternative health care information, and will have information to guide you through the changes in health insurance that will begin in 2014 as a result of health care reform legislation.
How Getting Covered Is Getting Better: An Artist’s Guide to Health Insurance and Health Care Reform by Jim Brown (of AHIRC) from the February 2012 issue of CERF+ News has the basics on coming changes in the US health care system and current options for health insurance and health care.
Health Insurance for the Creative Community - a page of links from a workshop Jim Brown of the Artist's Health Insurance Resource Center conducted in Nashville, TN in November, 2011. The page includes Jim's Powerpoint slides.
Healthcare Blue Book
People without health insurance often pay the highest rates for medical care. Whether or not you have health insurance you can shop for the best prices on procedures, and negotiate your hospital charges and doctors' fees. The Healthcare Blue Book can help you determine what are reasonable charges for procedures and has tips on how to negotiate your medical fees. The site will generate printable contracts to get your doctors and facilities to sign with Healthcare Blue Book prices. Shopping around and negotiating can be essential for individuals without health insurance, and can result in significant savings for those with high-deductible insurance plans.