HAAM seeks $500K in next year's city budget to fund local musicians' insurance

HAAM seeks $500K in next year's city budget to fund local musicians' insurance

Monday, March 4, 2024 by Chad Swiatecki

Health Alliance for Austin Musicians is seeking ongoing support from the city and possibly Travis County to cover the costs of subsidized health insurance coverage for more than 2,000 local musicians annually.

Tonight's Music Commission meeting will feature a presentation from HAAM CEO Paul Scott, who is looking for commissioners to approve a request for $500,000 in next year's city budget. That money would provide $250,000 for premium assistance support and $250,000 to fund activities related to assuring musicians sign up for coverage through the federal insurance marketplace during the enrollment period next fall.

HAAM has received small grants of city money totaling less than $100,000 in recent years, primarily related to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. A partnership with Central Health provides premium assistance for musicians who earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, while HAAM's premium assistance program covers those earning between 200 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level.

For much of its existence, HAAM had arranged for in-kind primary care and other services through a network of local providers such as Ascension. The opening of the federal insurance marketplace allowed thousands of cash-strapped musicians to secure coverage with a mix of federal and other subsidies. Currently, roughly 95 percent of musicians enrolled in HAAM have health insurance.

Scott said the city money would help the organization ensure a stable level of assistance for local musicians even as it adjusts to yearly fluctuations in premium costs and the selection of insurance carriers that choose to offer coverage in Texas.

"We kind of wait and see what's going to happen with premium increases. … That's always the big question mark. This year we didn't see a huge amount of increases, but some years we have, and so that impacts how many musicians we can actually serve," Scott told the Austin Monitor. "The marketplace is also very variable with the carriers that are working in Texas, and so that's always a question mark as well: Are they going to be back on the market to provide insurance again? Or do we need to move our members onto another carrier's plan if that group is no longer operating in the state of Texas?"

Scott will also ask the city's quality of life commissions for a similar budget request to supplement HAAM's $4.6 million annual budget, 50 percent of which comes from a trio of fundraising events while the remainder comes from individual donors and private foundations. That structure makes the group's funding somewhat unpredictable from year to year, which is why Scott is looking for annual city support as well as focusing on social service grant funding from Travis County.

"We do keep apprised of various grant opportunities through the city, through the county and then state and federal grants as well. It's hard to find something that's specifically going to match what we're doing," Scott said. "We're a health care organization, but we serve musicians and sometimes we may not fit the eligibility criteria based upon the population we're serving."

In 2022, Scott made a $1 million request for city money from City Council's Public Health Committee, though at the time members offered to instead assist HAAM in utilizing other state resources.

As assorted city commissions finalize their requests for next year's budget, City Council is preparing to receive a midyear budget review in April that could foreshadow a challenging budget process this summer.

Last week, staff from the Financial Services Department gave an update on year-end financials and said a reduction in sales tax revenue could cause a shortfall of about $15 million, though some Council members said a reduction in contributions to the budget reserve fund could cover some unexpected shortfalls.

Interim City Manager Jesús Garza said the city will soon spend through all of its funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and force a return to a pre-Covid level of service and spending for programs that had received substantial federal aid.

Photo by Earl McGehee made available through a Creative Commons license.

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