It’s not yet clear how many people purchased insurance through the exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act that opened up yesterday.But one of the things we’ve been hearing from a lot of creative people
is that the ACA has made it easy to be, or to contemplate being, an artist.
As discussed in ThinkProgress,”Being a writer, or a visual artist, or a musician, or an actor, has always been an economically risky choice where a few people succeed in dramatic terms, a larger number figure out middle-class existences doing what they love at least part of the time, and others struggle to do what they love. The ACA, and the ability to purchase more affordable insurance as an individual, doesn’t change that economic calculus. But it does help minimize a risk factor that can make it impossible to attempt careers as artists at all.
“It’s been interesting to hear all of the different ways the ACA has mattered to artists. Writer Kameron Hurley explains that not having decent insurance meant that, until she passed out and started convulsing, she decided she couldn’t afford to pay for the tests that ultimately revealed she had Type 1 Diabetes–a condition that then meant that she had to race to stay continuously insured, even if it meant taking low-paying temp work, less she go uninsured long enough for her diabetes to be considered a “pre-existing condition” that wouldn’t be covered in a future plan. Continue reading “Artists and Obamacare”