Healthcare Journal of NEW ORLEANS
I
NOV / DEC 2017
31
Bethany Bultman, co-founding direc-
tor of the clinic, spoke about what her clinic
does and what inspired its founding. “
I was
part of a team of people who realized New
Orleans might be the birthplace ofAmerican
music, but it was an early grave for every-
body who played it.”
In 1998, when the clinic was founded, she
was working as a journalist and being paid
moremoney towrite about the tragic demise
of certainmusicians, than those artistsmade
in any calendar year. “I saw this as a horri-
ble, horrible irony that everyone wanted to
write about the tragedy but they didn’t want
to solve the problem.”
The deaths of great musicians are so
commonplace as to be cliché. From Kurt
Cobain to Karen Carpenter, the world of
professional music is awash with great
musicians who died before their time. But
those dying most often and in the greatest
numbers, often from preventable causes,
are impoverished musicians in inner cities.
Catherine Lasperches, nurse practitioner
and primary care provider at theMusicians’
Clinic, explains that “most of the time, I treat
chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension,
and depression.”All of these are conditions
that can be prevented or managed through
lifestyle changes, but musicians struggle
with preventable complications stemming
from them at staggering rates.
“Buying health coverage is overwhelming
for anybody, regardless of socioeconomic
status,” said Megan
McStravick
, the intake
coordinator and social worker for theMusi-
cians’ Clinic.
Many musicians can’t afford
healthcare through commercial provid-
ers but also can’t prove their income is low
enough to qualify for low-income govern-
ment coverage. This is because a
perform-
er’s world is usually a cash-only world.
“Most of the time everything is cash,” says
Lasperches. “[Our patients] panic because
they don’t pay taxes, they have no idea how
much theymake, and it’s very hard for them
to figure out how much they make. If you
have no income taxes to show, you can’t get
coverage.”
McStravick
gave this example to illus-
trate the struggles musicians face when
seeking health coverage: A number of the
clinic’s patients work on Bourbon Street.
They might work four days per week and
make $100 for each day that they work.
So $1600 per month, right? Not so. The
problem is that taxes are not taken out
of those gig checks, so a musician’s over-
all adjusted gross income ends up being a
lot less. And when they’re not getting aW-2
from the venue where they work, it’s diffi-
cult to prove their actual income. “Themusi-
cians who are trying to do the right thing
are the ones who are negatively impacted,”
she says. “Here they are, trying to project
what their income is going to be [so they
can get health insurance,] but when asked
to prove it, they can’t, so they lose coverage.
The insurance system is not set up for self-
employed artists.”
Difficulty getting healthcare coverage
isn’t the only challenge NewOrleans musi-
cians confront when trying to lead a healthy
lifestyle. The staff at the clinic reported that
many of their patients work another job,
often in service or construction. Those jobs
come with health risks of their own, from
sleeping odd hours to getting hurt on the
job. “You would thinkmost of themusicians
who come in have hurt themselves playing
music but it’s not the case,”says Lasperches,
“Iwas part of a teamof peoplewho realized
New Orleans might be the birthplace of
American music, but it was an early grave
for everybody who played it.”
—Bethany Bultman
Catherine Lasperches, N.P. taking a clinic patient’s blood pressure.