Musician Zack Morgan jokes that when he lost his corporate job in 2015, it was like being pushed off a cliff.For years, he said, he'd been playing both sides of the Austin coin: tech worker by day, funk keyboardist by night.This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News."Maybe this is my sign to try the full-time music thing," Morgan recalled thinking.
"Step one in that was: Get health insurance again."Austin, Texas bills itself as "the Live Music Capital of the World," but it can be unaffordable for the artists who provide the city with its cultural cachet — and help drive its tourism revenue.Morgan has supported himself by patching together gigs with a number of bands.To help pay for health insurance, he turned to a local nonprofit, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, or HAAM."That's part of being able to make this whole thing work," Morgan said.HAAM subsidizes the monthly insurance premiums of local musicians who purchase plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
To fund the roughly $4 million program, it works with Central Health, a public agency that provides healthcare resources for low-income residents of Austin and surrounding Travis County.Many of the performing artists pay $0 toward monthly premiums.After more than a decade, including through the coronavirus pandemic, the assistance program has become an established and reliable financial support for Austin's musician community.This year, after Congress failed to extend pandemic-era subsidies, premiums skyrocketed for many ACA plans.
A recent report found that 5 million people nationwide had dropped the coverage.HAAM helped blunt the impact for its members.
It has emerged as a potential model for other cities hoping to make healthcare more affordable for key populations and industries.Texas had the highest uninsured rate among states, with 19% of people age 64 and under uninsured as of 2024.Even before the launch of the ACA marketplace in 2014, HAAM had spent a decade con...