My name is Indira Wiegand,
and I am an uninsured artist.
I really can't afford
a monthly payment plan of any sort.
My income really fluctuates month-to-month.
It's scary, it's scary.
I mean, you live in this big city, cross the street every day.
It's like ...
It's scary.
The concept of the artist who doesn't have health insurance
is nothing new.
You know, the struggling artist is something that has been around
for a very long time.
This was a way to bring them into the hospital
and offer them health care at an affordable price.
And in exchange, bring their talents into the hospital
and use them here, for both staff and client purposes.
It's cute, yeah. - You want that one?
Yeah.
Artist Access is a barter-for-service health care program
offered by Brooklyn's Woodhull Medical Center.
Under the rules of the program, uninsured freelancers like Indira
donate their time and skills to the hospital
in exchange for medical services.
The artists are paid on an hourly basis
in what Woodhull calls "health credits."
Although agreements vary,
most artists earn the equivalent
of two free medical or dental appointments
for every hour that they work.
Most workers in the U.S. receive health insurance through their employers.
Freelancers, who work for a variety of employers
on a project-by-project basis, have to seek out insurance on their own.
The options are limited and expensive.
It's me again.
For Indira, buying a basic health insurance plan
would mean spending at least a quarter of her taxable income
on monthly premiums.
It would be nice for my prescriptions.
I have asthma
and, at this point, it costs me U.S. $200 a month for that medication --
$200 for one inhaler.
In New York State alone, 2.7 million people are uninsured.
This amounts to about 14 percent of the state's overall population.
This is called "Goodnight Moon."
Many of those without insurance are freelancers,
who, according to national statistics,
are twice as likely as other workers to be uninsured.
Here's a big one! OK, this will be easier for me.
My name is Marisa Bowe.
I am a writer/editor, but mostly an editor,
of documentary, first-person interviews
with people around the United States.
And I'm here because I don't earn a lot of money doing that.
Marisa is a productive member of society by any measure.
Her first book, "Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs,"
met with near-universal acclaim when it came out in 2000,
and was even named as one of the best business books of the year
by the Harvard Business Review.
Before she dropped her insurance policy,
20 percent of her earnings went to health care premiums.
Unless I were to completely change my focus,
I couldn't really earn enough money to pay for health insurance.
Everyone I know who does what I do is kind of in the same position,
wondering, "Should we go to community college
and learn how to become health techs or welders or something?"
Marisa currently reads to pediatric patients
to pay for her medical expenses.
I need to get my skin looked at every six months
because I have had pre-cancerous areas,
and I get that done.
I get my eyes checked. I have gynecological check-ups.
It's great. It's great.
I've gotten everything that I wanted to have taken care of,
I've had it taken care of.
I have artists who are shocked:
"What's the catch? What's the deal?
What are you not telling me? Where's the contract?"
And it really is just to offer them a way to come in and get treated.
But if you think about it,
we have artists who are giving hours of their time.
We've had permanent murals painted on the walls,
five of them within the past year, and that's all the in-kind exchange.
How much would the hospital pay for an artist to come in
and put their work permanently on their walls?
So it really is beneficial on both ends.
One of the reasons Woodhull can experiment
with programs like Artist Access
is that it's part of New York City's publicly financed
Health and Hospitals Corporation.
Unlike many hospitals in the country,
Woodhull is not a privately owned, for-profit institution.
Serving the needs of the local community
is inherent in Woodhull's mission,
and the local community is changing.
Artists and writers are drawn to the neighborhoods around Woodhull
for their low rental prices and proximity to lower Manhattan.
Since the program launched, more than 600 freelancers of all ages
have signed up for Artist Access,
clear evidence that insurance is a problem among the self-employed.
Have a great day. - Thank you.
Bye. - Bye.
But will the particulars of Obama's health care reform ameliorate
any of the problems that made this necessary?
I'm not sure. I don't know.
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
What's happening now, on a day-to-day basis,
is that there's a certain need for this.
In truth, there's not much evidence that the recent health care bill
passed through Congress will lower the price of anyone's health insurance.
The bill contains provisions pertaining to access,
like the ban on denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions,
but contains no definitive price control measures.
It's a system weighted toward the rich.
The rich can get coverage,
so hopefully institutions like this will continue to exist, if not grow,
to cover everybody.