Texas musicians consider their health care options

AUSTIN—No one has ever written a song about premiums or deductibles.

And it’s not likely that anyone will begin composing upbeat lyrics about health insurance anytime soon. But some members of the music community here in Austin, a town that defines itself by its vibrant scene, are excited about the federal Affordable Care Act and the potentially positive effects it could have on them.

The Austin AmericanStatesman reports Jo Rae Di Menno, a music publicist working in Texas since the early 1980s, is optimistic that the Affordable Care Act could go a long way in keeping an often hard-living community in Austin healthy.

“It’s going to be a relief, particularly if you have pre-existing conditions,” she said.

Beginning Oct. 1, uninsured musicians in Central Texas—and uninsured Americans everywhere— have the opportunity to compare and buy health insurance plans through a federally run marketplace, and many of them will qualify for subsidies to help them afford coverage that was previously out of reach.

There’s a lot still unknown about the federal health insurance overhaul known commonly as “Obamacare.” The uncertainly has made some people connected to Austin’s music industry skeptical about the promise of affordable health care for musicians, leaving firmly in place the celebrated culture of benefit concerts in which musicians rally together to raise money for their ill or injured friends.

Alejandro Escovedo, one of Austin’s most well-known rock’n’-rollers, said he probably will comply with the act and buy a health insurance policy, but he’s reserving judgment on the new federal law.

“Rock and roll and the government never have gotten along that well, you know?” Escovedo said. “I’m dubious, but let’s see what happens.”

Escovedo is emblematic of much of Austin’s long-time rockers who have lived for years without insurance. They have stayed away from doctors whenever possible and have depended on the goodwill of the community when their situations became dire.

“The last time I had insurance, I was under my parents’ care,” Escovedo, 62, said recently in a telephone interview from Nashville, Tenn. “I’m a musician, and I don’t have enough money to afford insurance for my family.”

But even if he had the bankroll to pay for insurance for himself, Escovedo said he wouldn’t be able to buy a reasonable policy because of a health condition that has plagued him since the 1990s: hepatitis C. For him, the Affordable Care Act—and its mandate to not lock out people with pre-existing conditions— comes with the hope that he can someday be cured of his disease.

But the law also could deliver something more important to Escovedo.

“There’s relief in that I know my kids—my younger kids that are still with me—can get some help,” said Escovedo, who added that he supports universal health care. “It’ll be a great relief to a lot of people if they are able to get the treatment everyone else gets.”

Another longtime Austin musician was more hopeful.

Uninsured for practically all of his adult life, Danny Phillips, a 55-year-old guitarist and vocalist, said before a rehearsal in South Austin that he is looking forward to buying insurance for himself and his 25-year-old son, Dion.

Phillips said he has always wanted insurance but couldn’t afford it. So he just tried to stay healthy, and paid out of pocket on the rare occasion that he went to a doctor’s office. He cringed when he remembered a period several years ago when he passed kidney stones. He has since paid off the bills associated with that miserable episode, he said.

“As long as I can get insurance for a couple hundred bucks, I can do that,” said Phillips, whose blue eyes matched the pearl-snapped denim shirt and jeans he wore to rehearsal last week.