Health policy is arts policy

A country that provides all residents, regardless of employment status, with health insurance, presents a vastly different environment for artists than one that does not. I wrote about this recently, in the context of the November election. Whether painters, writers, and actors can try to ‘make it’ in their calling without having to track down the sort of employment that comes with health insurance as a benefit is, in the grand scheme of things, a lot more valuable than whether the budget of the state arts council rose by five percent or not. That’s not to disparage public funding for artists; it is just recognizing what would constitute a larger benefit to a larger group of creators.

Today, on Twitter, here is author (of the wonderful Station Eleven) Emily St. John Mandel:

A conversation with another writer: the first American publisher to offer health insurance to writers will win every auction, we agreed.

— Emily St. J. Mandel (@EmilyMandel) December 7, 2014

Only in the US would it occur to an author to say that. The Affordable Care Act is a great step, but here is hoping one day universal health insurance is fully achieved in America.