A bigger worry for musicians, on top of simply getting paid, is finding a way to deal with medical costs. Nonprofit group the Future of Music Coalition (
FMC) recently launched a new online survey on health insurance and musicians, with polling set to close April 1. In a previous survey, held in 2002, 44% of the nearly 2,700 respondents said they did not have health insurance, compared with 14% of the overall population in the 2000 census. Of the 1,368 respondents who did have health insurance, 25% bought it themselves, not through an employer.