Artists without health insurance: screwed. Artists with health insurance: also screwed, probably.

It’s not that getting health insurance is hard, says Alex Maiolo, who helps run the Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT) program, which partnered with the D.C.-based Future of Music Coalition in 2005 to help artists understand the world of managed care. But securing good, affordable health insurance can be nearly impossible.

“If you write down that you’re a musician, they won’t say, ‘Oh God, this person is a terrible risk,’” says Maiolo. “They don’t really care about what you do for a living. They care about how you live your life. And that can be a problem if you don’t pay your bills on time, if you’re not rich, or if you’re living like Keith Richards.”

Maiolo, who’s a Chapel Hill, N.C., insurance agent by day and a bassist in Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies by night, has helped hundreds of musicians with their health-insurance woes through the HINT program. Still, he says, “the obstacle that artists have is that they can’t afford this stuff.” Here, three tales from the front lines of art and medicine.

AMANDA KLEINMAN

Ailment: Broken ankle
Covered: Emergency-room visit, full-leg cast
Not Covered: Durable medical equipment, physical therapy, lost show revenue
... Continued