Unless you’ve been living under a rock, as the saying goes, you’ve heard about the recent efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Amid the political arguments and policy discussions, I have heard little or nothing about the effect of the insurance system on people in the creative professions, especially the many of us who are self-employed. It may surprise some people to learn that a poorly managed health-care system could severely hinder progress in the arts.

Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on. -William Blake The idea that money, patronage and trade automatically corrupt the wells of imagination is a pious fiction, believed by some utopian lefties and a few people of genius such as Blake but flatly contradicted by history itself. . . . On the whole, money does artists much more good than harm. The idea that one benefits from cold water, crusts, and debt collectors is now almost extinct, like belief in the re