Hmmm...I guess I understood differently. I agree that Freelancers
Union DOES lobby, but I thought they also as a org, provide healthcare
to its NY members. See below from their website:
"Health Insurance: In New York, Freelancers Union offers eligible
members PPO or high-deductible plans through Freelancers Insurance
Company (FIC). Freelancers Union also offers health insurance in other
states through UnitedHealthcare’s Golden Rule Insurance Company."
To reply to Danielle,
I've already looked into this for California. Basically, just because
you might be a member of an organization, that doesn't mean the
organization has the same responsibilities and liabilities over the
member. The employer-employee relationship is totally different. The
only way for an indep contractor to even gain medical insurance from
an employer is if the IC has had a continuous working/paid
relationship for 2+ years, which I guess means that the IC is
effectively an "employee." So again, insurance coverage ability
varies from state-to-state.
My guess for the actors and other unions is that unions represent
their members and negotiate pay rates, worker conditions, etc. to the
point of being a direct employer.
Jerome
______________
BLANKSPACES
"work wide open"
www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.330.9505 (office)
On Mar 22, 2010, at 9:10 AM, Alex Hillman wrote:
Not really.
The Freelancers' union wasn't designed to actually provide the
healthcare, it was to create a lobby voice to change the
legislature, making it easier for teams to provide healthcare under
different structures.
THAT is something our starfish teamwork could accomplish very well,
then allowing individual spaces to figure out what structures they
need to band together in order to provide healthcare.
-Alex
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia
On Mar 22, 2010, at 8:38 AM, WHERE MMM wrote:
Bryan,
Sorry I don't know, but which coworking site are you associated with?
I have been looking into providing this service here in CA since
inception/ implementation of "WHERE:MMM" and found that it was
extremely costly (prohibitively so) to provide to my members or even
across LA/ California for independent contractors. I even used the
same analogy as the Actor's and Writer's Union's out here but no one
would underwrite it without a large chuck of change attached.
Even with a national reach.. to get the type of numbers that would
provide lower health care costs was even more tricky and no one
would underwrite.
Perhaps you can share a bit more details to the group here on your
idea; as, I know that, it is the main reason that Freelancers Union
hasn't done it yet.
Do you have someone on hand now that is offering to underwrite it to
the group? And, if so what organizational structure would be needed
from us all??? or do you have an institution either non profit or
for profit already in place?
Would love to see this happen.. so necessary...
Thanks in advance for hitting us up with this!
Best,
Danielle Nicoli
WHERE: MMM
Los Angeles Coworking
323 663 6636
On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Jerome Chang
<[email protected]> wrote:
Freelancers Union already spearheads this effort for NY, and
probably other states. Correct, some states don't allow an org-
based insurance, including California. And yes, this is a massive
undertaking that would overwhelm our disparate, "starfish"
teamwork. We would have to tackle some fundamental milestones
first, such as how to define coworking, how do we organize a
conference, and should we even join some kind of "formal" collective.
Jerome
______________
BLANKSPACES
"work wide open"
www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.330.9505 (office)
On Mar 22, 2010, at 8:03 AM, BrianR wrote:
It appears health care reform may make it easier for coworking spaces,
in the US, to pool together to provide insurance. The purpose is to
save money on health insurance by buying in bulk. By banding together
many small orgs could get the same rates as a big company.
I realize this is a complicated issue with very geocentric details.
I'm familiar with some of the orgs already doing this. Some
experiments in health insurance pooling have not gone well.
Are ya'll interested in this idea? Is it something that we could
innovate in? Is it just too big of a hassle?
I believe it could be real unifying force for coworking spaces and a
reason for us to work under one umbrella.
-BrianR
p.s. some related links
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/22/smallbusiness/small_business_health_reform/
http://smallbusinessreview.com/regulations/Everyone_into_The_Health_Insurance_Pool/
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