Donate today to the Musicians Health & Services Program
By Melanie Bobbett
In my 11 years with JWF, I have never personally made a direct community call to action– until now. Here’s why that time has come:
I began my work with the JWF Musician Health & Services Program in 2015 after learning about the organization’s incredible mission from the audience of The Next Waltz. Because this was after Oregon expanded Medicaid in 2014, almost every person that JWF has assisted since I’ve been here has had health coverage. JWF grants have mainly gone toward living expenses, addressing basic needs like rent and food when music workers experience health-related financial hardship. JWF’s navigation support has generally focused on accessing additional basic living assistance, understanding how to use existing health coverage, and overcoming health care access challenges.
This is all about to change. JWF is already seeing the impact of recent federal changes to SNAP and Marketplace insurance on musicians and music industry workers in our community. And right now, we’re bracing for new federal Medicaid (OHP) eligibility rules beginning in January 2027 that will make it very difficult to maintain coverage.
JWF is working diligently to support our music community through these threats. Thanks to our partnership with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Office of Community Health & Engagement, we can provide individual support to music workers navigating these new changes. JWF also recently hosted an in-person event where music community members directly connected with OHA staff for the most up-to-date guidance on what is coming with the Oregon Health Plan (OHP). As shared by one musician attendee:
“This was the first time in my life (as a professional musician of over 25 years) where I could be in a room with representatives of a state/government agency that provides critical social safety net programs and ask direct questions about how we could work together to find solutions for our vulnerable population to access necessary services like OHP coverage... Access to education about the upcoming OHP changes, as well as connection to real people who could help us navigate them, is so deeply appreciated by me and (as I heard from others in the room) the music community who will have to help each other through the onslaught of changes to OHP.”
Through JWF’s Musician Health & Services Program, we’ll be providing more OHP and Marketplace system support than ever to help our music community stay covered. And due to the anticipated risk of coverage loss from the changes to these programs, we are also preparing for more music workers needing JWF grants and navigation support for medical expenses, specifically. We expect this area of JWF assistance to be in higher demand than we’ve seen in my entire time with the organization.
But this is not the first time we’ve kicked into high-gear in the face of unique, large-scale threats to our music community’s health and wellness. In 2020, due to the immediately devastating impact of the pandemic on the music industry, JWF launched our COVID Relief Program which quickly provided $500 emergency grants to 144 local music workers, all from individual community member donations.
And now, my ask:
I have spent my entire career working within our local health care and health insurance landscape, closely following the ups and downs along the way. That perspective, plus my 11 years with JWF seeing the unique struggles that music workers endure in these systems is how I know that what we’re facing now is no joke. JWF IS HERE for those who give so much to all of our personal and community wellbeing through their music – to help them overcome these new obstacles to their own health and wellness. And just like during JWF’s COVID response, we need our entire community’s support to maximize our efforts to that end.
Melanie Bobbett, LMSW
Lead Navigator
Musician Health & Services Program
The Jeremy Wilson Foundation
P.S. We can ALL have a part in supporting our music community’s ongoing access to health coverage and care. PLEASE join JWF in that cause by making a donation today. And the next time you see a kick-ass show with a friend, tell them to donate too.
