The Actors Fund Launches Expanded Support with Every Artist Insured Campaign

Though Broadway theaters remain shut down, The Actors Fund is committed to providing support for members of the performing arts and entertainment industries. The national human services organization is launching the Every Artist Insured campaign, which enhances their free and confidential health insurance counseling and enrollment support services.

Over the next six months, thousands of artists will become ineligible for their union insurance in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. To respond to the need for healthcare, The Actors Fund is hiring and training additional health insurance counselors, doubling the staff of their Artists Health Insurance Resource Center. A lead gift of $1,000,000 in support from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) launches the campaign. Donations can be made here.

“One of our biggest immediate concerns in the midst of the pandemic is access to health insurance,” said Actors Fund Chairman Brian Stokes Mitchell in a statement. “We have a short window of time to address this problem facing potentially thousands of people.”

Since the original announcement of the Broadway shutdown on March 12, the theater community has united to raise funds for The Actors Fund. On May 14, the charity announced that in just eight weeks it had raised a record-breaking $10,500,000 to help provide emergency financial assistance for those in need—that amount is more than five times the funds normally provided in one year for those using the organization's services. As previously reported, the one-night-only return of The Rosie O'Donnell Show presented by Broadway.com raised $600,000 for for the 138-year-old organization.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March, The Actors Fund has provided urgently needed emergency financial assistance to performing arts and entertainment community workers nationally, already totaling more than $13 million in assistance to more than 11,000 people. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Actors Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services.

To apply for assistance from The Actors Fund, head here.