Art & Cultural Events List

Dear Massachusetts Artists working in all disciplines and supporters of artists,

Presently, the Connector Authority, the state agency charged with implementing the Health Care Reform Law, has issued DRAFT regulations on how the Department of Revenue is to assess if someone is exempt from the individual mandate - the mandate that requires people to have health insurance.

The only measure they are planning to use to assess someone's income level is GROSS income only. This is highly problematic for artists, the self-employed, and small business owners and is clearly going to negatively impact the artist community, the self employed, and small business owners. It is our adjusted gross income that should be the measure (after business exemptions line 22 on the Federal Income tax form).

There is going to be a series of public hearings for the Connector to hear and collect testimony from the public on this important issue and others concerning the Health Care Reform Law.

The Artists Foundation is organizing panels of artists to testify and is also collecting written testimony from artists to submitt at the hearings. If you can attend this hearing and/or give written testimony (can be an email) as to why Gross income is not a fair way to assess income, please email me. Also even if you don't want to speak at this hearing- we are looking for people to attend and fill the house as they say.

The Dates and locations are:

May 16th 10am North Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth)
May 23rd 10am Springfield (AIC College)
May 29th 10am Boston (State House, Gardner Auditorium)

We need artists to show up at these hearings!!!

Kathleen Bitetti
Artist
Executive Director
Artists Foundation
Email: afinfo@artistsfoundation.org


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BACK GROUND info:

In the DRAFT Regulations "Determining Affordability for the IndividualMandate (956 CMR 6.00)" it says:

Gross Income: the total money earned or unearned, such as wages, salaries, rents, pensions, or interest, received from any source without regard to deductions.

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They have published the following information:

Any individual with an annual GROSS income of $50,001 or more will be deemed to be able to afford health insurance.

Any couple with an annual GROSS income of $80,001 or more will be deemed to be able to afford health insurance.

Any family with an annual GROSS income of $110,001 or more will be deemed to be able to afford health insurance.

(... from Kathleen Bitetti, the Artists Foundation. Please reply to
afinfo@artistsfoundation.org....... )