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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.