Health Insurance for RPT's?

[Mark Schecter]

Dean May wrote:
> This is a very political topic, not piano related.

Hi, Dean.

Well, you may have already deleted this, but I hope you'll go just a few 
paragraphs with me. Please understand that, in what I say below, I mean 
no offense to you or anyone, no matter what their beliefs or positions. 
I just beg your indulgence in a topic that has a lot of meaning for me, 
and I suspect, for quite a few other piano technicians as well.

As _piano_technicians_, we are, for the most part, self-employed. Some 
of us have the good fortune to either be employed by a school or shop, 
or to ride on our spouse's coattails into their employer's health 
insurer. Many of us, for various reasons, can't do either of those 
things. Some of us have only two possibilities for health coverage: 
self-paid, or no coverage at all. I think (!) you'll agree that no 
coverage is the least desirable choice.

For those of us who have to pay for our own health coverage, the size of 
the hit can be anywhere from mildly painful to extremely difficult, 
depending on several factors that are largely out of our control. I 
would be surprised if there are not piano technicians who have left the 
field, simply because the only way they could acquire health coverage 
was to go get a job somewhere in an unrelated field. Maybe this is not 
piano-technical, but it sure is piano-technician-al.

Today, Massachusetts passed a law providing health coverage to most of 
the people in that state who are currently uninsured. I think that's a 
good thing, but only time will tell how it all works out.

California is currently debating a bill that would allow groups, such as 
PTG, to band together to purchase health insurance at reduced group 
rates, just as a business can do for its employees.

I think being able to purchase reasonably priced health coverage through 
the Guild is a very desirable benefit to offer members. I think it would 
encourage people to join the Guild, and would be utilized by many 
members, present and future. Would you not agree?

But, the Guild can't offer group rates on health insurance because state 
laws, which are heavily influenced by for-profit HMOs, won't permit it. 
This needs to change, for the good of the people, even if that means 
money out of the pockets of the HMOs. OK, yes, it's political, but we 
are not just technicians, we are humans who need health care, and we are 
business people who have enough on our plates with our craft and our 
clienteles, not to also burden our families/ourselves with onerous 
insurance payments or unlimited risk.

So I hope you have the good fortune to have the coverage you need. For 
those of us not that fortunate, this is really important. There is a 
window of opportunity right now to change things for the better, and I 
think it's a perfect use of this list to inform readers that things are 
happening which need their input. If it doesn't apply to you, it might 
apply to your friend. And, you can always just hit delete.

If this is too off-topic for this list, I expect you and/or others 
and/or the moderator will so inform me. Thank you for allowing this much.

-Mark Schecter
Oakland, CA