Music: A Big Star without health insurance: The sad end of Alex Chilton
- At least twice in the week before his fatal heart attack, Chilton experienced shortness of breath and chills while cutting grass. But he did not seek medical attention, [wife Laura] Kersting said, in part because he had no health insurance.
- New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Keith Spera • Regarding the last week of Box Tops and Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton, who lacked the health insurance to keep him alive, sadly. That’s despite the fact that he wrote hit songs (including a popular TV show theme song) and had a reputation up there with the greatest in pop music history. Chilton, who lived in New Orleans for most of the last three decades, wasn’t overly sentimental about death, but this ties into the health insurance problems many musicians face. He was only 59. He still had plenty of life left to live; there’s no reason it had to end like this. source