THE PROBLEM
Independent workers make up a large share of the creative workforce, and their work structure puts employment-based benefits out of reach. They lack safety-net protections at far higher rates than workers in other sectors. Many earn too little to afford coverage on the private market and too much to qualify for means-tested public benefits. The expiration of ACA subsidies and changes to the New York Essential Plan have further narrowed access.
Portable benefits, which attach to the worker rather than the job, have drawn wide interest as a solution. But today’s models were not built for creative work. They do not account for income volatility, for the fear of losing a client by asking too much, or for the web of labor, tax, insurance, and health law that excludes independent workers in the first place.
Independent creative workers cannot be retrofitted into a system built for employees. New models are needed, and they have to be designed with the people who will use them.
THE PROCESS
Convene. Since May 2026, the Institute has convened a working group of New York stakeholders to align on shared goals, proposals, and strategies. The group agreed on two next steps: a participatory design workshop and a power map of the political stakeholders needed to move legislation.
Design. On September 22, 2026, the working group met for a collaborative policy design workshop, designed and facilitated by Althea Erickson of the National Arts Policy Alliance and Ann Boger of Bramble and Bird. Participants work toward a shared understanding of the regulatory constraints, the challenges specific to each stakeholder group, and the preferred structure of a city pilot and a state policy.
Map. After the workshop, the Institute leads a power-mapping exercise with working group members to identify who must be moved to advance these proposals in the 2027 city and state legislative sessions.
Advance. Facilitators synthesize the workshop into draft proposals for New York City and New York State, circulate them for feedback, and revise. The working group reconvenes to build consensus on a final proposal and determine next steps.
WHAT IT PRODUCES
Policy proposals at the city and state levels to expand portable health benefits for New York’s independent creative workers.
A power map and strategy to build political support in the 2027 legislative sessions.
The foundation of a coalition to carry the work forward.
This process also feeds a national participatory research and policy co-design initiative led by the National Arts Policy Alliance, launching in fall 2026, which aims to produce a federal portable benefits agenda and a national coalition to advance it.
WHO’S INVOLVED
The September workshop is organized by the Culture & Arts Policy Institute, Freelancers Union, and the National Arts Policy Alliance, and hosted by the Office of the Arts at Hunter College.
The Portable Benefits Working Group members includes representatives from A.R.T./New York, ArtsNYS, ArtsPool, Black Artists Collective CNY, Bramble and Bird Consulting, Center for an Urban Future, Culture & Arts Policy Institute, Entertainment Community Fund, Freelancers Union, Hunter College Office of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mayor’s Office of Operations, National Arts Policy Alliance, New Yorkers for Culture & Arts, NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, Queer Nightlife Community Center, and Venturous Theater Fund.