The expected shift of these increases is also in progress. “I’m a sole proprietor who pays incredible premiums for basic, high-deductible family health insurance,” says Stephen Cox, a glass artist in River Falls, Wis. “The premium rises every year, and if business gets bad enough, we will have to consider dropping it.”

Megan Patrick of Floridays Gallery in Florida says the increases for their family and employees health insurance in a group plan through her husband’s small business may force them to make changes. “My husband pays 100 percent of the [premium] for the employees’ insurance and they can opt to add family members at the group rate at their [own] expense,” says Patrick. “His insurance costs have risen significantly — by 25 percent — in the past year and he is considering reducing the benefit by paying only 80 percent of the employee’s premium.”

The increased costs are often passed on to employees in other ways, as well. Karren K. Brito of Entwinements in Ohio says she switched to a group plan this year after employees had difficulty qualifying for the individual policies she previously provided. The fiber artist and author of “Shibori: Creating Color & Texture on Silk” says, “The cost for having employees has jumped 50 percent this year in covering health care. There will be no raises this year.”

Some craft businesses simply don’t offer health coverage to employees. “Our business provides health insurance for ourselves as gallery owners, “ says Peter Hildt, owner of Pinnacle Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz. “But we cannot provide health insurance for employees.”

Even craft artists who do not currently cover themselves or their employees through their craft businesses are apprehensive about future needs for health insurance.

“ The cost of insuring myself and my staff of four would drastically impact my business,” says Margaret Lent of Margaret Lent Handwovens in Buchanan, N.Y. “Fortunately, right now health insurance coverage is not an issue as we are all covered by our spouses’ plans. However, it will become a major concern as we all approach retirement age and this type of coverage ends.”

Most of the craft professionals that we talked to say they have few options other than the coverage and rising costs they have now. Some like Hildt and Eric Serritella of Muddy Paws Pottery in Newfield, N.Y., are “continuing to look for a better plan.”

The majority, like Karen Singer of Singer Tileworks in Philadelphia, Pa., glass artist Gary Gennetti of Warwick, N.Y., and metal artists Grant and Lynn Massey of Frankford, Del., say they have no plan for containing their rising health insurance costs. “What’s your suggestion?” asks Linda Kornberg of Minata Jewelry in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Unfortunately, there are no perfect solutions to suggest. Crafts guilds and other arts organizations in some states offer group health insurance coverage for qualifying members, as do Chambers of Commerce in many towns and cities across the country, but even these traditional resources for small-business owners are struggling. “A few years ago we had a nice group plan through our Chamber of Commerce,” report basket artists Karen and Darryl Arawjo of Bushkill, Pa. “The plan was dropped and so we had to go ‘independent.’”

The Arawjos say their Chamber has since come up with a new plan but with the addition of Chamber membership it is more expensive than their current plan. “For all of the years we have been fulltime craftsmen, this insurance business has been a problem,” they say. “Will we ever find an answer?”

In his presentation on Access to Affordable Health Care, made to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in February, U.S. Small Business Admin-istrator Hector V. Barreto minced no words about the critical situation and the need for an answer.

“ For many small-business owners, this is the most important issue they face,” says Barreto. “More small business owners cite health insurance (23 percent) than they do even taxes (20 percent) or poor sales (17 percent) as the chief impediment to their success.”

Barreto explains that though businesses large and small have experienced rises in health insurance premiums disproportionate to inflation, small businesses (including the one-artist studios common to the crafts industry) have been particularly hard-hit with premiums for companies with 10 or fewer employees growing by an average of six percent more annually than larger companies.

Barreto told the Senate that, even before recent increases, only 49 percent of small firms were offering health coverage, while 98 percent of all large firms had this benefit. Further, 71 percent of small firms usually offer only one plan to their employees, because companies receive better deals when all or most employees join the same plan.

Barreto wants Congress to pass legislation reducing the differing state and local regulations that current law places on Association Health Plans (AHPs), which Barreto’s boss, President Bush, believes will make it easier for small businesses to enroll their employees in affordable health insurance plans.

“ AHPs will enable small businesses to pool their resources together across state lines to access the same discounts from higher-volume purchasing and the same flexibility to design coverage options that large firms and labor unions have,” says Barreto.

Another option under consideration in Congress is the “Securing Access, Value and Equity in Health Care Act,” recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The National Association for the Self-Employed has put its clout behind this bill that provides for pre-payable, refundable tax credits to all Americans for the purchase of health insurance.

The proposal offers tax credits for the uninsured of $1,000/individual, $2,000/couple, $500/child or $3,000/family plus 50 percent of any additional premiums on top of these amounts. According to co-sponsors Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Maryland), this legislation would make health insurance more affordable for Americans without employer-subsidized insurance, such as the country’s 18 million self-employed and micro-business owners.

Congress is also looking at a federal program, now in it’s pilot stage, involving health insurance and Medical Savings Accounts

(MSAs). According to the Internal Revenue Service, participants in an MSA purchase a high-deductible policy along with a tax-preferred medical savings account. Tax-free deposits, which can be rolled over from year to year if not used, cover routine medical expenses up to the deductible, while the insurance policy covers expenses above the deductible.
Craft artists looking for health insurance relief outside of pending legislation in 2003 can visit the newly expanded Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center online. Citing the unique problems faced by artists in obtaining quality health insurance, i.e., episodic employment, project-based work and self-employment, the Actors Fund of America unveiled their enhanced resources in April.

According to AHIRC, artists across the country are twice as likely to be uninsured as the general population, which means that almost one in three artists does not have health insurance. AHIRC’s Web site lists organizations throughout the United States where performance, visual and literary artists can find options for health insurance coverage. Because the availability of affordable, quality health insurance differs greatly from state to state, the database is accessed by state or district.

And, in addition to those mentioned here, The Crafts Report Online also has an extensive list of insurance resources for craftspeople at www.craftsreport.com.

The issue of affordable health care and insurance is likely to be a main point of debate along with the rest of the economy in the coming 2004 national election, giving new hope for action in Congress. At least one artist has already decided her vote. “I will vote for anyone making sense on [national] health care,” says Karren Brito who currently has a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan in Ohio.

Going without health insurance entirely is the worst possible option. According to a survey by The Commonwealth Fund, a New York- based private foundation supporting independent research on health and social issues, one-half of the survey’s uninsured respondents went without health care and one-third did not fill prescriptions. Seventy percent of the uninsured who paid for health care used up their savings and 25 percent went without other necessities to pay for health care.