The only people who generally have private health insurance in the UK (other than dental care) are those who work for companies where, usually senior, staff get this as a taxable part of their package. I wouldn't have thought that artists would belong to this category.

Here in Canada health insurance is seen as important. Government does not cover dentistry, mental health, eyecare, physiotherapy, ambulance. There are provincial programs to help with prescription drug costs, but the deductible that must be met first is quite high.

That's true for the UK but not for many European countries. See https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/health_glance-2015-3...