Local musician expresses health care woes through song

It starts with a toe-tapping beat before the jazzy horns come in to transport you to New Orleans. In falsetto, a man starts singing, “Tell me what am I supposed to do, I ain’t got no more money left to give to you.”

Is he talking about a gold-digging lover? Not quite. The next lines are, “Is it my kid’s life or debt collector dues? What a hell of a thing to have to choose.” 

That’s right — this song is about one of the U.S.’s most persistent quagmires, the health care system. 

Hollywood Heights neighbor Chris J. Norwood wrote “American Healthcare Blues” with his band Chris J Norwood & The Knockdown Dragout after a difficult experience with a hospital debt collector.

Last year, Norwood had to take his young son, who has asthma, to the hospital for a couple nights. Despite having insurance, the bill he received afterwards was more than his family could afford. He tried to apply for financial aid but described that process as frustrating and ultimately ineffective.

“There’s no way to do it online,” Norwood said. “You have to either ask for it when you’re at the hospital, which is not ideal, or you have to call and spend however many times diving through the phone tree, and then you finally get someone, and you ask for it, and then they usually treat you with contempt, just for even asking. We had asked for it; they had sent the form. They mailed the forms to us. I filled them out, mailed them back and didn’t hear anything for a long, long time. Then I started getting bills from a debt collector for the hospital.”

From there, Norwood tried to figure out what happened with his financial aid while also getting the runaround from the hospital and debt collector. Emotionally and mentally exhausted, he negotiated and agreed to just pay half the bill.

“We’re lucky,” he said. “We had money in savings, but the bill at half price was still a month’s salary. It was really high, but we paid it. And just the process, just the idea that they could even arbitrarily take half was frustrating to me because that tells me that their billing is almost arbitrary.”

The resolution of this situation is what drove Norwood to start writing “American Healthcare Blues.” 

“I shouldn’t have to second guess whether or not I need to take my son to the hospital if he needs to go,” Norwood said. “If he needs life-saving medicine, I shouldn’t have to question whether or not this is going to bankrupt my family.”

Norwood acknowledges that this issue is bigger than his own situation. In January, CNN reported, “Health insurance is even less affordable this year.” Employers are being charged more for providing health care insurance, and Affordable Care Act premiums have spiked as enhanced federal subsidies expired. Medicare Part B premiums also reportedly increased by almost 10%. 

“The main thing for me was just letting people know that we’re all kind of experiencing this together and that we’re not alone in this,” Norwood said about his song. “There’s comfort and solace in at least knowing that we’re in this together, and then we can build off that.”

As for any next steps or political action, Norwood is leaving that up to the listeners to decide. Personally, he plans to support political candidates who advocate for affordable health care. 

Joining Norwood on the song’s lead vocals are his bandmates The Knockouts, Carrie Norwood and Liz Holmes, who each sing a verse in “American Healthcare Blues.” 

The song, of which there are also instrumental and acoustic versions, features the talents of Adam Pickrell on keys, Preston Lewis on saxophone and horn arrangements, and Kazu Tanaka on trumpet. 

You can stream the song here on Soundcloud as well as on Apple Music and Spotify. Chris J Norwood & The Knockdown Dragout is expected to release more singles and will play a show on April 9 in the Design District at AM/FM.