Reposted from old blog. Please bookmark.

Freelance artists often go without health insurance. They have no employers to provide it, or claim they cannot afford it.

Here’s a great online resource for artists and other self employed people seeking health insurance. Just click on the map of your state, and a comprehensive listing of available organizations and insurance options will be made available to you. This goes for artists of all kinds, but also applies to low income families, the disabled, etc. Please bookmark this.

In the last week, I have read a number of creators and people in the industry posting ill-informed items about the lack of health insurance options for the self employed and for creators in particular. One woman flatly stated that the only reason she had never quit her job and started her own company was because she knew self employed people could not get insurance. This is simply false.

As a self employed person, I have never been unable to get health insurance, and when I started out, was only paying about $134 a month. For those who fear giving up insurance while just leaving school or a job, there are companies that also offer affordable short term health insurance that can run from 30 days to 6 months.

Don’t think you can’t afford insurance and then give up seeking it without even trying to look though this site.

Some organizations offer a flat health insurance fee to ALL members. I used to belong to the National Association for the Self Employed and all members paid the same rate. I have read many complaints about the NASE plan, and left them many years ago, having no complaints myself.

I got an even better deal with Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield for comprehensive health care, including dental insurance, for $200 a month.

I had no problems with the NASE, I simply get what I need elsewhere. The Graphic Artists Guild suited my needs more. I recommend you seek out both and make your own decision. You may want to belong to both. I did for awhile.

Just go to the insurance resource website and click on the state in which you live. You will then see a long list of options. Don’t just study one category such as “graphic artists”. Also look under “self employed”, “visual arts” and other categories. You’d be surprised how many categories may apply to you, even when you live in places you may think don’t have resources that suit the needs of creators. EVERY state has resources for you.

Since I live on a farm, if need be, I could also qualify under several categories for income assistance and insurance for farmers. So, be sure to check out a variety of categories.

Check out the United States Federation of Small Business, which comes with many benefits, yet costs only $100 to join. The Graphic Artist Guild health plan is administered, in part, through this organization. By all accounts, this is a good plan. I just ran the numbers for a friend who was sure he could not get health insurance, and one inquiry gave us a quote of only $145 a month, easily within his budget. That’s less money per month than he spent going to San Diego Comic Con in one fell swoop, that’s for damn sure.

Over half of all Americans get some kind of government assistance. They may be businesspeople, or farmers, or low income families. Regardless, you pay taxes for a reason. This is your money. There are many government assistance plans listed on the site. Please avail yourself of these services, if you genuinely need them. That is what they are there for, and you paid for them.

Don’t assume that because you are low income, you don’t have resources.

By the way, don’t expect insurance to pay for every case of the flu and every little illness. This kind of thinking keeps premiums high. Go for the absolute HIGHEST deductible you can afford. Insurance is supposed to cover you in case of catastrophic illness. You are paying that premium in the event that someday you are going to have a major case of cancer or something.

Try to keep your deductible high and then sock the extra money you save on the premium every month away in a money market plan or some other savings vehicle. You will have a better return in your insurance investment that way. By taking a high deductible, I save about $75 a month, or $900 per year. $900 a year more than covers whatever out of pocket I may have, and in ten years at 9% compound interest, that’s a savings of $16,828. That’s more than three times the size of my deductible, so on the off chance I do get a major illness and need out of pocket cash, I will have it, as well as a reserve.

Also, look into a health savings plan. I did not know about these until recently, and they were signed into law in 2003. These are like IRA savings accounts for people who opt for low cost, catastrophic insurance plans, and back them up with these savings accounts. The deposits are tax free, and as long as the funds are used to pay for your qualifying medical expenses, they remain tax free. If you are a relatively healthy person at this time, these are a great option to consider.

There are different considerations for the employed and the self employed, so do some research.

What Is a “High Deductible Health Plan” (HDHP)?
You must have an HDHP if you want to open an HSA. Sometimes referred to as a “catastrophic” health insurance plan, an HDHP is an inexpensive health insurance plan that generally doesn’t pay for the first several thousand dollars of health care expenses (i.e., your “deductible” but will generally cover you after that . Of course, your HSA is available to help you pay for the expenses your plan does not cover.

For 2005, in order to qualify to open an HSA, your HDHP minimum deductible must be at least $1,000 (self-only coverage) or $2,000 (family coverage). For 2006, the amounts increase to $1,050 and $2,100, respectively. The annual out-of-pocket (including deductibles and co-pays) for 2005 cannot exceed $5,100 (self-only coverage) or $10,200 (family coverage). For 2006, these amounts increase to $5,250 and $10,500, respectively. HDHPs can have first dollar coverage (no deductible) for preventive care and apply higher out-of-pocket limits (and co pays & coinsurance) for non-network services.

But remember, a self employed person who is paying out of pocket for their own health insurance enjoys a 50% tax deduction. Be sure to calculate your tax savings as a deduction from the cost of your insurance.

For example, if you can’t afford $200 a month, remember that $100 of your insurance payment is not taxable. Say you are being taxed at 20%. That’s $20 a month. So your actual insurance cost is only $180 a month.

c

Very long post updated from old blog, with important tips from comments section added. Please bookmark

If you are an artist or a writer working from home, whatever they say, DO NOT BELIEVE YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENT, MORTGAGE COMPANY OR INSURANCE AGENT WHEN THEY TELL YOU THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH YOU, YOUR MORTGAGE, YOUR ZONING, YOUR INSURANCE POLICY, OR ANYTHING ELSE.

READ THE FINE PRINT YOURSELF!

When I first moved out on my own and bought my little home, I was very poor and qualified for a low income home loan. Great! My tiny 750 square foot condo was more than enough room for me and a little office. I told my real estate agent who I was and what I did, and what I intended to do in my home. I also told my mortgage company who I was, what I did, and what I intended to do in my home.

I got my loan, and set up a little studio space in my dining area.

Yeah, I had read my mortgage agreement, my eyes got bleary after about five pages, and I couldn’t tell you what the thing said if my life depended on it. I bought the house and can draw pictures in the house, right? It’s my house.

All was well. Until I began learning some scary things about zoning, and mortgages, and so on.

I sat down and REALLY read the fine print in my home loan agreement, and even though I had been told that my home office was OK and that my being an artist would not be a problem, the actual language of the loan specifically forbade my running any business from my home.

Ever.

For any reason.

The real estate agent and mortgage company were more interested in making a sale than they were in paying attention to the fine print, and I was more interested in getting my loan than paying attention to the fine print. So, they told me what I wanted to hear to make a sale.

And at any time if I had been called on it, I could have lost my home. The bank could have withdrawn the loan and foreclosed on my home because I was drawing comics in my home. No kidding. One neighbor with a grudge and a little smarts, and I could have lost my HOUSE.

In fact, there are MANY mortgage agreements that forbid home offices.

(more…)

Elin Winkler wrote this post some time ago, My response was on the old blog and I thought it could use a repost. I am pretty sure I recall meeting Ms Winkler long ago. She is the publisher of Radio Comix, and has been on the alternative/manga scene for many years.

Here’s her frank look at the advances, contracts, and page rates young artists can expect today from some book publishers. As you see, the description of what some artists get is pretty grim. 20 years after I got started in the business, young creators are not making significantly more money than I was, with bigger companies that ought to have better resources at their disposal.

Moreover, in this era of creator rights awareness, creators are still signing away their rights for poor consideration. If you sign away your creations, that pay ought to include sufficient remuneration for that sale. $7500 a year ‘aint it.

Read all the way through the comments, because another reality check at the end of this missive is the fact that whatever your meagre earnings, those meagre earnings will be paying some taxes. As a self employed artist, you pay double taxes on social security – about 15 1/2%. Many’s the year I paid nothing in income tax because my income was so low, but I have had to cough up fat fees for social security payments. Even if you clear a measly $10,000, you’ll be paying about $1,500 of that just to Social Security. Add in state, local and federal taxes (after your standard deductions) that could come to another $1,000. So, with only $10,000 cleared, you pay $2,500 in taxes, leaving you a whopping $7,500 left to live on!

All is not gloomy, however. Say you pull in $20,000 per year as an artist – an amount suggested by a webcomic blog as a bare minimum amount an artist might expect to live on. (I can’t recall the link, but I do recall thinking a goal of $20,000 was a pretty bad goal minimum.)

Deduct your expenses for business use of your phone, computer, car, convention expenses, art supplies, etc, and you could easily add up a good $10,000 in legitimate deductions.

Wow! Cool! You get to spend money on new computer equipment and art supplies and not pay taxes on that stuff!

But you still had to pay for it all! You’re not saving any money! You have no money for health insurance! No money for emergencies, no real money to live on! Unless you want to spend your life living in your parent’s basement, you’re going to have some serious thinking to do in planning your future and considering the consequences of the contract you are signing.

It is not at all unusual for a moderately successful artist to have $15,000-$20,000 or more in annual expenses. When I had a self publishing mail order business, the fee to process credit card payments was about $100 a month alone (that was years ago and VERY high. There’s no reason you would have to pay that amount with Paypal and other services these days.)

Warehouse space, $250 a month. Long distance phone calls routinely ran over $100 a month (and for awhile, upwards of $500) until the phone company started offering flat rate long distance plans. Online computer access, about $65 a month. Shipping, about $250 a month. Federal Express shipping of art and computer discs on one book awhile back ran upwards of $300 over a couple of months all by itself. Ebay sales cost about $700 to ship over just a few months. A major convention will easily run $600-$800 in shipping costs for one show (one way), not to mention drayage fees if the show also requires you pay a union to handle your boxes.

Before getting into auto, travel, office, and supplies, the costs outlined above are just under $10,000 per year. Two major convention booth rents per year, add another $5,000. Legal and professional services, about $1,000 bare minimum.

I routinely have a good $20,000 in business expenses per year – at least – with or without self publishing costs from days of yore. Since I dumped the mail order business, I no longer have to warehouse, or pay online credit fees, and I rarely do conventions. But new expenses are things like $3000 for a scanner, $1000 on software, and a not-inconsiderable cost for licenses for use of photos for reference. You won’t have high equipment expenses every year, but you will need to make sure that money is there when the gods of Epson decide to take your expensive scanner back home to Jesus.

If you make $50,000 per annum and spend $20,000 on business, in reality, you only make $30,000 per year, and that is not exactly big bucks. After paying taxes on that, a moderately successful artist gets about $20,000 to live on.

So, when I see uninformed people online speculating about the high income of creators on monthly books – well, $50,000 a year only looks good to a college student, and $20,000 a year as an income goal is empirical evidence of amateur night antics. No professional artist can expect to make a decent living on less than $50,000 a year, because we are not just paying our personal expenses, we are paying business costs. If you happen to have a second income in your house and a supportive spouse, then maybe $20,000 works for you, and more power to you. But you will have a very difficult time supporting yourself on that if you are more than a year out of college.

Inquiring minds may want to know what the first thing is that gets paid out of Colleen’s royalty checks: my health insurance, dears.

Anthem has a great low-cost plan that serves me very well. And one of the advantages of being self employed is that 1/2 your health insurance costs are tax deductible from your income tax. 1/2 of your social security payments are as well. With standard deductions, and personal allowance, as well as the social security deduction, it’s likely beginning artists will pay no federal income tax at all.

c

I’ve gotten a few emails from folks who wonder why they can’t find articles on this blog on Google or Yahoo. I’m afraid the blog migration and move to a new server completely blitzed our stat rankings and wiped out our search history.

You can find any of our the important info posts by hitting one of those handy tabs at right. Please bookmark and most importantly, please share with your fellow creators.

Here is the original link to the article on graphic novel agents with dozens listed and lots o’ links.:

A Distant Soil Blog: Graphic Novel Agents.

And for extras:

Neil Gaiman’s Blog: Everything you wanted to know about literary agents.

Insurance Resources below:

A Distant Soil article on health insurance for artists with many links.

The Artists Health Insurance Resource Network.

The United States Federation of Small Businesses.

The Craft Council.

The Fireman’s Fund.

Insurance Rating. Get financial stat rankings on insurance companies here.

A Distant Soil blog: Home Office insurance and licensing info.

(FYI: A page from the Absolute Sandman, that is. Thanks for helping out. – c)

This is a call to action!

As many of you may know already, artist Josh Medors (Frazetta’s Swamp Demon & Sorcerer, Runes of Ragnan, 30 Days of Night) has been fighting a losing battle against a terminal form of cancer for well over a year, and it has recently taken a turn for the worst. The doctors and conventional medicine have all but given up on him and say there isn’t anything else they can do. But he has found an alternative treatment that has the possibility of extending his life a bit and can help improve the quality of his life near the end so he can spend it with his wife and son. There is even a slim chance it can make him somewhat better, so he has to try. But of course the treatment is very expensive and Josh has no medical insurance.

So myself and my brother, Andrew Mangum (currently Josh’s inker on Frazetta’s Sorcerer) decided to arrange another benefit auction like the one they
did at Emerald City Con back in ’08. This auction is different though because the last one was organized by Jay Fotos to help Josh pay his rising medical bills to fight the cancer, and this one is specifically to get the treatment he needs to be keep him around. I know there are a lot of fans and friends out there that want to help, so this auction series will be that opportunity. A wide variety of artists are contributing personal works and art from their collections just like last time, but this time it’s open to collectors, fans, and everyone else. as well anyone can donate if they want to help! We just ask that it be comic or comic art related.

I have set up a special “preview gallery” for all the items as they come in on my Comic Art Fans webpage.

You can see all of the artwork & items we will be auctioning there, as well as who donated it (unless they request to be anonymous) and all artists who donate their art will also have their websites listed if desired. Many packages of art are already on the way now and will be up soon, and the list of artists donating grows by the minute, so there is A LOT more art coming! Be sure to check back periodically to see what we’ll be listing!

To donate something to the auctions, just email me at madman1138@yahoo.com or through my Comic Art Fans gallery (where all the art is) with a scan or photo of the item and the item information and I will send you the mailing address to send the goods to. I only ask the items be shipped to me in advance because there will be a lot to organize and package, and simplicity dictates that only one location handle it all. This is shaping up to be quite an undertaking, so I have to keep it as easy as possible. All donations must be received no later than Friday, May 22nd 2009 in order to be included in the auctions, which will start listing to Ebay on Saturday May 23rd.

Josh will also be selling off all of his remaining artwork to help cover these costs, and I will be helping him with that as well. So if you would like to buy something of his now, please see the green “Art for sale-Josh Medors” gallery also on my Comic Art Fans.

I will update this gallery with more art as Josh sends me more scans, but pages are available from Frazetta’s Swamp Demon, Chucky, GI JOE, and more! All proceeds, after selling fees from all of this, will go to Josh to help him and his family in this dire time of need.

Because so many people have been asking about sending monetary donations directly to Josh as well, his Paypal email address is: jmedors3@columbus.rr.com

Sending $5 or $10 might not seem like much, but remember the water drops principle. A drop of water isn’t much, but enough drops eventually fill the bucket. Every bit counts here and time is of the essence. Now is the time to act!

Please be sure to also include your name and address with the payment email through Paypal when sending money, because Josh wants to try and do Thank You cards with little sketches to all who donate (and some of the other artists might help out with that for him, so you never know what you’ll get!)

Lastly, please only use his email address for Paypal payments and don’t deluge his inbox with questions and well wishes. Although appreciated, he won’t be able to reply to them.

Thank you for looking, and especially for helping! Together we CAN make a difference!

Dave Kopecki