Freelancers Union
Encyclopedia
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in the United States that provides health insurance to its members through its for-profit
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
Freelancers Insurance Company as well as service information through monthly meetings and information on its website.
Structure
According to the organization, membership in Freelancers Union is more than 80,000 in New York with more than 150,000 nationwide. This includes the freelancerFreelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
s, consultants, independent contractors, temps, part-timers, contingent employees and the self-employed that make up one-third of the American workforce. Because they are employed in nontraditional arrangements, these independent workers do not have access to employer-based insurance. Therefore, Working Today, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, launched Freelancers Union in 2001. Freelancers Union has created a portable benefits delivery system, linking benefits to individuals rather than to employers, so independent workers can maintain benefits as they move from job to job and project to project.
In addition to providing a somewhat flexible safety net in the form of portable benefits, the organization tries increase the visibility of independent workers, bringing issues that concern freelancers to the attention of media and policy makers. From tax relief (independent workers bear a greater tax burden than traditional employees) to unemployment and worker’s compensation, Freelancers Union advocates for legal reform on these issues.
Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union, does not believe in a Canadian-style single-payer health care
Single-payer health care
Single-payer health care is medical care funded from a single insurance pool, run by the state. Under a single-payer system, universal health care for an entire population can be financed from a pool to which many parties employees, employers, and the state have contributed...
system, she said on WNYC's radio program, the Brian Lehrer
Brian Lehrer
Brian Lehrer is a radio talk show host on New York City's public radio station WNYC. His daily two-hour 2007 Peabody Award-winning program, The Brian Lehrer Show, features interviews with newsmakers and experts about current events and social issues...
show. She believes that individuals should be able to buy insurance through groups like the Freelancers Union that would give them bargaining power against insurance companies. They should get assistance through vouchers or a refundable tax credit if they can't afford it.
Under the labor laws, the Freelancers Union can't engage in collective bargaining over wages or working conditions because it is not a real union. The entertainment unions can today, because they were grandfathered in. Collective bargaining Horowitz sees as a "moment in history", as she told Lehrer. Judging by listener phone calls, Lehrer suggested that, the biggest problem freelancers had with the Freelancers Union (at the time, in 2007) was that they couldn't meet the organization's definition of freelancer, which requires that they work at least 20 hours a week in one of seven industries.
Founder and honors
Sara HorowitzSara Horowitz
Sara Horowitz is the founder of Working Today and Freelancers Union, leading organizations of independent workers. She was an Echoing green fellow in 1995, and she was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999...
founded Working Today, the parent organization of Freelancers Union, in New York City in 1995, in order to represent the needs and concerns of the growing independent workforce. Before founding Working Today – Freelancers Union, executive director Horowitz was a labor attorney in private practice and a union organizer. In recognition of her efforts to create a self-sustaining organization of flexible workers, Horowitz was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
in 1999. Nine years ago, she was named as one of Esquire Magazine
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
’s "Fifty Best & Brightest" and received a community development award from the New York Mayor’s Office.
Working Today – Freelancers Union was recognized in 2004 and 2006 as a leading social entrepreneur by Fast Company magazine
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
.
Portable Benefits Network
Freelancers Union offers health insurance as a non-profit health insurance brokerage. In 2001, it created an infrastructure platform known as the Portable Benefits Network (PBN) which provides health insurance to independent workers at less than half the price of average HMO premiums in the individual market in New York City, and also offers life and disability insurance, financial services, resources, and discounts. As of June 2006, nearly 12,000 independent workers receive benefits through the PBN and several thousand more advocacy members have registered to support its mission. In 2008, it replaced PBN with the Freelancers Insurance Company (a wholly owned for-profit company) to offer insurance to its members.With the PBN platform in place, the organization is expanding to become a full service association for the independent workforce. In August 2006, Freelancers Union launched a web portal with new services available to freelancers that includes job postings, message boards, and member profiles.
Criticism
The cost of selling individual insurance requires more overhead than group insurance. "Policies that provide the exact same coverage to someone working for a large employer will cost more for an individual," says the Center for American ProgressCenter for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website states that the organization is "dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action." It has its headquarters in Washington D.C.Its President and Chief...
's website for college students. "Even worse, insurers can pick and choose preexisting conditions and then deny coverage for those deemed too costly to cover." A Center for American Progress fellow estimated the average difference in administrative costs alone was $300 per year between individual and group insurance.
In January 2008, the company was criticized by both its members and the press for dropping Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a federation of 39 separate health insurance organizations and companies in the United States. Combined, they directly or indirectly provide health insurance to over 100 million Americans. The history of Blue Cross dates back to 1929, while the history of...
from its network to more expensive options. Through this process some members were even inadvertently dropped altogether.
External links
- Freelancers Union Homepage
- Freelancers Union About Us Page
- Freelancers Insurance Company Homepage
- Upset Freelancers Union Members, a blog by members critical of Freelancers Union
See also
- Health InsuranceHealth insuranceHealth insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
- FreelancerFreelancerA freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
- UnionismUnionism-Trades:*Community Unionism, describes the various ways in which trade unions can work with communities and community organizations*Craft unionism, an approach to union organizing in the United States and elsewhere that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the...
- Open-source unionismOpen-source unionismOpen-source unionism is a term coined by academics Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers to explain a possible new model for organizing workers that depended on the labor movement"taking its own historical lessons with diversified membership seriously and relying more heavily on the Internet in...