Medical Insurance for Musicians

published September 8, 2005

originally published at: www.kxan.com

KXAN provides coverage of our work with musicians.

Many Austin musicians are silently struggling with health problems they can't afford to diagnose much less treat.

Now a relatively new alliance is offering the health care they need to keep our live music scene humming.

"I was never afraid it would be the end of singing," Austin folksinger Lisa Rogers said.

During decades of keeping live music lovers singing and laughing, this self-proclaimed humdinger, folk singer and member of the Therapy Sisters was noticing some changes in herself.

"What happened is I started losing my hearing slowly over the years and didn't pay attention," Rogers said. "I also for the last year had facial tingling which is kind of like the end of novocaine so I didn't think much of that either."

If you're wondering why she didn't think much of it...

"Because I didn't have a doc," Rogers said.

It's estimated Rogers was one of thousands of uninsured or underinsured musicians here in the Live Music Capital of the World.

"They've been postponing care. They've had aches and pains but they're scared because doctor bills can be very expensive if you're paying out of pocket," Carolyn Schwarz with the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians said.

"Then in May, I found out about HAAM, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians and applied and got it and had no idea what it would mean," Rogers said.

What it meant was the key in finding the source of her symptoms - an acoustic neuroma.

"It's not in the brain. It's next to the brain stem in the acoustic canal basically," Rogers said. "It's a benign tumor that affects hearing obviously the facial nerve and only fatal if ignored which is what I'd been doing for years, ignoring it."

"With this program, she's been able to access doctors that would've been completely financially out of reach," Schwarz said.

"It's hard to say I'm happy for this little guy but I'm blessing it for all the blessings it's brought me. I'll be happy to say goodbye. But in the meantime I'm the luckiest folksinger in town," Rogers said.

There is a benefit Saturday afternoon will help pay Lisa's part of the bills. It's at 2702 Princeton Drive in South Austin.

To learn how you can help the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, check out their Web site.