The problems dominating the twin Hollywood strikes by actors and writers are synthetic intelligence, residual funds, and job protections. However one subject that’s typically a contentious level in labor negotiations — medical health insurance — has slipped below the radar.
A-list stars have been out in drive snapping selfies on picket traces within the brilliant California solar, but it surely’s the individuals who could have by no means walked the pink carpet who’re forgoing a paycheck and probably their medical health insurance because the negotiations drag on and work dries up.
The medical health insurance supplied by each unions relies on the notion that it’s for members who work constantly and lucratively sufficient to make a minimal amount of cash. That makes the insurance coverage troublesome first to achieve after which to maintain. In alternate, it is extremely, superb medical health insurance.
Usually referred to in hushed, reverent tones because the “Cadillac of medical health insurance” by those that have it, the coverage supplied by the Writers Guild of America, previously the Display Writers Guild, appears like a holdover from a bygone age. It has no month-to-month premiums, prices $600 a yr to cowl the remainder of your quick household, and has deductibles within the a whole lot — not 1000’s — of {dollars}.
However the largest strike in additional than six many years in Hollywood threatens that safety. The WGA has been on strike since Might 2, and the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, since mid-July. Collectively they characterize over 170,000 employees, who’ve refused to carry out any a part of their job since talks with studios and streamers stalled. Writers and actors may lose their eligibility for insurance coverage just because they aren’t working whereas placing.
Filmmaker and Writers Guild member Susanna Fogel mentioned irrespective of how good her union medical health insurance is, members are at all times liable to shedding it. “If we’re this near not having it, then we’re already on a razor’s edge,” she mentioned, “which is sort of why we’re placing, although within the brief time period it form of simply shines a light-weight on the issue.”
A Difficult Components for Writers
For writers to qualify for medical health insurance, they should earn a bit of over $41,700 in lined union work inside a yr. Residuals don’t rely. The revenue requirement continues to rise, which, coupled with the more and more unsure reliability of employment, means even skilled writers can have a tough time qualifying.
Writers can accumulate credit by qualifying for WGA medical health insurance for 10 years and by incomes greater than $100,000 in lined work. Prime earners can rack up three factors per yr, which may be cashed in when writers expertise a dry spell and may’t make the minimal revenue requirement, however well being protection ends the quarter after the credit are used up.
For instance, a author who qualifies for medical health insurance for 10 years however earns lower than $100,000 can money in all their factors and proceed their insurance coverage for as much as a yr and a half if they’re insuring solely themselves.
However insuring dependents makes use of up extra credit, which means folks with households have much less of a stopgap to fall again on.
Because the strike stretches into one other quarter, many union writers are furtively calculating what number of credit they’ve and the way lengthy this momentary measure will purchase them, if they’ve credit in any respect.
Actors’ Good Deal Is Precarious
In contrast, residual funds do rely towards the $26,000 per yr that members of SAG-AFTRA should earn to qualify for medical health insurance supplied by the actors’ union. So boosting residual funds, particularly from streamers like Netflix, which may pay virtually nothing, is a excessive precedence for members on the margins.
Plan premiums from SAG-AFTRA are $125 a month for union members. For a household of 4 or extra, the month-to-month value rises to $249 a month, or $2,988 a yr. That’s lower than half of the $6,680 that the common California employee with employer-sponsored medical health insurance paid for protection for a household of 4 in 2022, based on a report by the California Well being Care Basis. (KFF Well being Information produces California Healthline, an editorially impartial service of the California Well being Care Basis.)
Members of each unions say it took them years to make sufficient cash to qualify for the union medical health insurance, whereas different union members who’ve labored within the business for years by no means have.
“The moments that I’ve been liable to or have misplaced medical health insurance up to now, pre-strike, have been after I was working,” mentioned filmmaker Fogel, who can also be a member of the Administrators Guild of America. “I used to be working, however there have been particulars to the work that simply made it fall brief or fall within the unsuitable month to remain lined. So it was simply at all times a stress.”
Ought to the unions merely drop the revenue requirement to a decrease quantity so extra members may qualify? Alex Winter, a longtime member of three business unions, doesn’t suppose so.
“It appears draconian to show again to the unions and say, ‘Nicely, since now we have these oligarchs who’re hoovering up all of the income, let’s attempt to take what few squirrel nuts now we have and scatter them out amongst whoever survived staying within the business,’ versus combating to get equitable pay, which is what we’re doing,” Winter mentioned.
Each SAG-AFTRA and WGA have been approached for interviews about their medical health insurance choices. SAG-AFTRA declined to be interviewed and WGA despatched LAist a hyperlink to its FAQ web page.
SAG-AFTRA despatched members a letter on Aug. 30 saying medical health insurance can be prolonged for sure members who would in any other case have misplaced eligibility on Oct. 1. Members who made at the very least $22,000 earlier than the strike started will proceed to get union medical health insurance by the tip of the yr.
A New California Regulation Might Assist Strikers on the Margins
All California employees who lose their employer-sponsored medical health insurance could also be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, often called Medi-Cal, or qualify to purchase medical health insurance by Coated California, the place their prices could possibly be low if they’ve minimal revenue. Nonetheless, it could be a disruption to lose their low-cost SAG-AFTRA or WGA plans, and a further expense at a time when placing employees are making a lot much less cash.
Writers and actors who lose their union medical health insurance due to the strike may gain advantage from a brand new California legislation that took impact July 1 geared toward averting simply that state of affairs.
AB 2530 obtained $2 million in funding below the brand new state price range. To qualify, a union employee should first lose protection because of the strike. In keeping with Coated California spokesperson Craig Tomiyoshi, eligible employees can have their premiums lined as if their incomes have been simply above the Medicaid eligibility degree.
Not all placing employees will enroll in a free plan. Placing employees will have the ability to choose plans which can be costlier than the benchmark plan. In the event that they do, they’ll pay the distinction in premiums.
“Coated California has seen fewer than 150 candidates who’ve recognized an affiliation to WGA or SAG-AFTRA apply for protection,” mentioned spokesperson Kelly Inexperienced. She added that they count on to see extra if the strikes proceed and that individuals who anticipate shedding their union medical health insurance ought to get in contact.
On Jan. 1, one other new legislation kicks in. Coated California will finish deductibles on the middle-tier benchmark plans, which means a placing employee may obtain free premiums below one legislation and no deductibles within the new yr, if the labor dispute lasts that lengthy.
These new guidelines don’t cowl crew members who should not a part of the placing unions however have misplaced medical health insurance as a result of work stoppage.
A brand new mutual help group was created to fill that hole.
The Union Solidarity Coalition, identified by the acronym TUSC, has raised greater than $315,000 to offer help to Worldwide Alliance of Theatrical Stage Staff and Teamsters members, mentioned founding member Winter.
“I don’t know anybody, actually, in lots of the first crew areas who isn’t at risk of shedding their medical health insurance, and I do know lots of people who’ve misplaced their medical health insurance,” Winter mentioned.
The concept for the nonprofit started with conversations between crews and filmmakers, mentioned Fogel, a fellow founding TUSC member.
“As a result of their protection is predicated on the hours that they get inside a sure window of time, a few of the [crew members] talked about they or folks they knew have been in danger for not making their hours attributable to productions shutting down, or in the event that they opted to not cross a picket line, that might value them their medical health insurance,” she mentioned.
TUSC has partnered with the Movement Image and Tv Fund and its Leisure Well being Insurance coverage Options, which acts as an insurance coverage navigator for folks within the business.
Fogel mentioned it’s about ensuring that everybody within the business has entry to high-quality well being care irrespective of the present business situations.
“Sometimes, when there’s one group of individuals which can be happening strike, and it’s our flip to strike proper now, we simply needed to sort of let the opposite unions know that we think about ourselves to be a part of a collective, and we hope that they really feel that love from us,” Fogel mentioned.
Might studios and streamers proceed the business members’ protection? They might, but it surely’s unlikely as a result of decision-makers are on the opposite facet of the bargaining desk.
Half of the trustees of the Movement Image Business Pension & Well being Plans are represented by firms concerned within the strike. The WGA’s strike FAQ tells members “there isn’t any Well being Fund requirement that the Well being Plan prolong medical health insurance protection throughout a strike, and Trustees are 50% administration and 50% Guild.”
In July, Matt Loeb, president of IATSE, the union that represents behind-the-scenes employees, known as for studios and streamers to supply an extension of well being care advantages to those that could lose them in the event that they fall wanting qualifying throughout the strikes. IATSE just isn’t on strike.
“Make no mistake — if the studios actually cared concerning the financial fallout of their preemptive work slowdown … they may proceed to pay crewmembers and absolutely fund their well being care at any second, as they did in 2020 throughout the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Loeb wrote.
This text is from a partnership that features LAist, NPR, and KFF Well being Information.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working applications at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Study extra about KFF.
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