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Health Care Help is Coming for Musicians, dut Is It Enough?
little over two years ago, Glasscrafts
guitarist Steven Trimmer began to
experience a terrible pain in his abdomen.
When the discomfort steadily grew worse,
he knew it was time to seek help. He went to
a local general practitioner, assuming diagno
sis and relief would come quickly. What began
instead was an ordeal that would span the
next two years of his life and musical career.
At that point, Trimmer's hair reached his
shoulders, and his colorful clothing didn't nec
essarily meet the standards of the business-
casual working world. Waiting room procedures
and paperwork revealed him to the office
staff as uninsured???a fact met, he says, with
pursed lips and raised eyebrows from the sec
retary behind the desk.
After a brief encounter with the doctor,
he was shuffled back out the door with a
prescription for an antibiotic. But the pain
persisted. Soon, he returned to the doc
tor's office, where he was met with even less
attention and empathy than his original visit
elicited.
"[The doctor] would not even take the time
to see me or to talk to me," says Trimmer. "He
would come in, talk into a tape recorder and
just leave."
An onslaught of referrals followed, as
Trimmer's case was pushed from doctor to
doctor without a diagnosis, prescription or
procedure to bring him any relief. After tak
ing several rounds of ineffective antibiotics,
he grew discouraged. The pain became more
acute and began relocating to different areas
of his abdomen. It became increasingly dif
ficult for him to sleep, despite the exhaust
ing demands of his band at the time, Grass
Giraffes.
Trimmer, known by friends for his positiv
ity and enthusiasm, became irritable and
anxious while he continued to look for help
from specialists and clinics in both Athens
and Atlanta. His funds and his patience were
draining away. Dismissing the guitarist's trou
bles as psychological, doctors prescribed anti
depressants and anti-anxiety medications.
"All of my money and resources went into
these doctors, and no one wanted to help me,"
Trimmer says. "They just put me on Xanax."
Trimmer knew his mental and emotional
issues were situational, brought on by a prob
lem that was growing worse without any con
sequential answers. "It was very humiliating,"
he says. "They treated me like I was crazy."
Without any help in sight, and after more
than a year of ongoing suffering, Trimmer
didn't know how he could continue living with
the pain he was forced to tolerate day in and
day out. The demand to pay his medical bills
and to play music became one in the same,
and Trimmer pressed on musically.
In the midst of the chaos and ongoing
pain and frustration, Grass Giraffes recorded
an album and began a cross-country tour.
Through sheer will and dedication, Trimmer
made it through most of the shows.
But then he woke up in Nashville, covered
in his own blood.
He was taken to the emergency room.
With the persuasion of his family, he found
a surgeon willing to help. He was diagnosed,
quickly and correctly. An abscess had grown
in his digestive tract, and had finally torn.
Trimmer needed surgery immediately. "It was
at a crisis point, where I really could have
died from what was going on," he says.
After the surgery, Trimmer regained his
health and vitality but struggled with regret
over the time he lost to crippling pain.
"It was just hard, because, the problem
that I had, it was able to be diagnosed that
quickly by someone who was just willing to
take the time and talk," he says. "And to be
treated by him not like I'm crazy or insane,
but just to look at me and treat me like I'm
human???not just like a piece of refuse."
Trimmer is one of innumerable Athens
musicians who have faced terrible illnesses
while uninsured. Elephant 6 founder Will
Cullen Hart, of the Olivia Tremor Control and
Circulatory System, has dealt for years with
multiple sclerosis. And, like Trimmer, he
doesn't have insurance. Facing the possibility
of financial collapse, Will's wife, Kelly Hart,
sought out philanthropic assistance. (Full
disclosure: Kelly is a Flagpole employee but
Will is not on her insurance plan).
After diligent searching and a tedious
application process, the Harts were fortunate
to find help through Pfizer Helpful Answers,
MS LifeLines and The Multiple Sclerosis
Association of America.
"He has two prescriptions that aren't cov
ered, so we pay out-of-pocket for those," says
Kelly. "We also have to pay office visits and
miscellaneous stuff out-of-pocket, because
he's not insured. So, he doesn't go to the doc
tor as often as he should, just because it gets
expensive. But he'd hardly get any treatment
at all if it weren't for these programs that sub
sidize his meds."
Will is also a part of a low-income assis
tance program at Athens Regional Medical
Center, which the couple only learned about
through a friend who was employed by the
hospital. Despite significant help, Will's medi
cations and trips to the doctors still cost hun
dreds of dollars per month, and sometimes the
treatment he needs is simply not an option,
financially.
On one occasion, Will ended up hospital
ized after tripping, hitting his head and break
ing his wrist. ARMC's low-income assistance
program covered 95 percent of the cost of
stitches on his forehead, X-rays and a CT scan,
which would have cost approximately $5,000
otherwise. But the hospital would not put a
cast on his arm, and would only refer him to
an orthopedic doctor, where an appointment
alone would have cost $250. Will had no
choice but to let his wrist heal on its own.
or these uninsured musicians, there
is potential relief on the horizon. As
the doctor's offices and hospitals of Athens
shift to accommodate the students of the
medical partnership between Georgia Regents
University and University of Georgia (GRU/
UGA), a more philanthropic spirit may prevent
the horrors that Trimmer endured and the
financial burden that the Harts feel daily.
The small body of GRU/UGA medical stu
dents is extending into the underserved areas
of the community. The students are required
to enroll in a Community Health course, in
which they work with local institutions to
research and design interventions addressing
health related problems in the area.
Among the programs in place is a partner
ship with Nuqi's Space, the nonprofit health
and music resource center that provides
affordable consultations with a volunteer doc
tor to uninsured local musicians, among other
services. The Nugi's project was particularly
attractive to eight students with an inter
est in the bustling local creative community,
who signed up to continue a research project
started by past GRU/UGA students that had
been intended to characterize local musicians'
attitudes toward healthcare.
"The musician community is so different
from other populations, and is not a well-
understood or studied population," says Sara
Whytle, a student on the research team. "Their
lifestyle is very different from other people
their age. Most of the musicians we initially
interviewed had a clear understanding of
10 FLAGP0LE.COM-JULY 10, 2013
JASON THRASHER