The points dominating the twin Hollywood strikes by actors and writers are synthetic intelligence, residual funds, and job protections. But one subject that’s typically a contentious level in labor negotiations — medical insurance — has slipped below the radar.
A-list stars have been out in drive snapping selfies on picket strains within the vivid California solar, nevertheless it’s the individuals who might have by no means walked the pink carpet who’re forgoing a paycheck and probably their medical insurance because the negotiations drag on and work dries up.
The medical insurance provided by each unions relies on the notion that it’s for members who work persistently and lucratively sufficient to make a minimal sum of money. That makes the insurance coverage troublesome first to realize after which to maintain. In alternate, it is vitally, excellent medical insurance.
Often referred to in hushed, reverent tones because the “Cadillac of health insurance” by those that have it, the coverage provided by the Writers Guild of America, previously the Screen Writers Guild, looks like a holdover from a bygone age. It has no month-to-month premiums, prices $600 a yr to cowl the remainder of your fast household, and has deductibles within the lots of — not hundreds — of {dollars}.
But the largest strike in additional than six a long time in Hollywood threatens that safety. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, and the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, since mid-July. Together they symbolize 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 might lose their eligibility for insurance coverage just because they aren’t working whereas putting.
Filmmaker and Writers Guild member Susanna Fogel stated regardless of how good her union medical insurance is, members are at all times prone to dropping it. “If we’re this close to not having it, then we’re already on a razor’s edge,” she stated, “which is kind of why we’re striking, even though in the short term it sort of just shines a light on the problem.”
A Complicated Formula for Writers
For writers to qualify for medical insurance, they should earn just a little over $41,700 in coated 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 insurance for 10 years and by incomes greater than $100,000 in coated work. Top earners can rack up three factors per yr, which may be cashed in when writers expertise a dry spell and might’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 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.
But insuring dependents makes use of up extra credit, which means individuals with households have much less of a stopgap to fall again on.
As 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
By distinction, residual funds do rely towards the $26,000 per yr that members of SAG-AFTRA should earn to qualify for medical insurance provided by the actors’ union. So boosting residual funds, particularly from streamers like Netflix, which may pay nearly 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 price 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 insurance paid for protection for a household of 4 in 2022, in keeping with a report by the California Health Care Foundation. (KFF Health News produces California Healthline, an editorially unbiased service of the California Health Care Foundation.)
Members of each unions say it took them years to make sufficient cash to qualify for the union medical insurance, whereas different union members who’ve labored within the trade for years by no means have.
“The moments that I’ve been at risk of or have lost health insurance in the past, pre-strike, were when I was working,” stated filmmaker Fogel, who can also be a member of the Directors Guild of America. “I was working, but there were particulars to the work that just made it fall short or fall in the wrong month to stay covered. So it was just always a stress.”
Should the unions merely drop the revenue requirement to a decrease quantity so extra members might qualify? Alex Winter, a longtime member of three trade unions, doesn’t suppose so.
“It seems draconian to turn back to the unions and say, ‘Well, since we have these oligarchs who are hoovering up all the profits, let’s try to take what few squirrel nuts we have and scatter them out amongst whoever survived staying in the industry,’ as opposed to fighting to get equitable pay, which is what we’re doing,” Winter stated.
Both SAG-AFTRA and WGA have been approached for interviews about their medical 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 insurance can be prolonged for sure members who would in any other case have misplaced eligibility on Oct. 1. Members who made at the least $22,000 earlier than the strike started will proceed to get union medical insurance via the tip of the yr.
A New California Law Could Help Strikers on the Margins
All California employees who lose their employer-sponsored medical insurance could also be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, often known as Medi-Cal, or qualify to purchase medical insurance via Covered California, the place their prices might be low if they’ve minimal revenue. Still, it might be a disruption to lose their low-cost SAG-AFTRA or WGA plans, and an extra expense at a time when putting employees are making a lot much less cash.
Writers and actors who lose their union medical insurance due to the strike may gain advantage from a brand new California legislation that took impact July 1 geared toward averting simply that scenario.
AB 2530 obtained $2 million in funding below the brand new state funds. To qualify, a union employee should first lose protection on account of the strike. According to Covered California spokesperson Craig Tomiyoshi, eligible employees can have their premiums coated as if their incomes have been simply above the Medicaid eligibility degree.
Not all putting employees will enroll in a free plan. Striking employees will be capable of decide plans which can be dearer than the benchmark plan. If they do, they may pay the distinction in premiums.
“Covered California has seen fewer than 150 applicants who have identified an affiliation to WGA or SAG-AFTRA apply for coverage,” stated spokesperson Kelly Green. She added that they anticipate to see extra if the strikes proceed and that individuals who anticipate dropping their union medical insurance ought to get in contact.
On Jan. 1, one other new legislation kicks in. Covered California will finish deductibles on the middle-tier benchmark plans, which means a putting employee might 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 are usually not a part of the putting unions however have misplaced medical insurance as a result of work stoppage.
A brand new mutual support group was created to fill that hole.
The Union Solidarity Coalition, recognized by the acronym TUSC, has raised greater than $315,000 to provide help to International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Teamsters members, stated founding member Winter.
“I don’t know anyone, honestly, in a lot of the primary crew areas who isn’t in danger of losing their health insurance, and I know a lot of people who have lost their health insurance,” Winter stated.
The concept for the nonprofit started with conversations between crews and filmmakers, stated Fogel, a fellow founding TUSC member.
“Because their coverage is based on the hours that they get within a certain window of time, some of the [crew members] mentioned they or people they knew were at risk for not making their hours due to productions shutting down, or if they opted not to cross a picket line, that could cost them their health insurance,” she stated.
TUSC has partnered with the Motion Picture and Television Fund and its Entertainment Health Insurance Solutions, which acts as an insurance coverage navigator for individuals within the trade.
Fogel stated it’s about ensuring that everybody within the trade has entry to high-quality well being care regardless of the present trade circumstances.
“Every so often, when there’s one group of people that are going on strike, and it’s our turn to strike right now, we just wanted to kind of let the other unions know that we consider ourselves to be part of a collective, and we hope that they feel that love from us,” Fogel stated.
Could studios and streamers proceed the trade members’ protection? They might, nevertheless it’s unlikely as a result of decision-makers are on the opposite aspect of the bargaining desk.
Half of the trustees of the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plans are represented by firms concerned within the strike. The WGA’s strike FAQ tells members “there is no Health Fund requirement that the Health Plan extend health insurance coverage during a strike, and Trustees are 50% management and 50% Guild.”
In July, Matt Loeb, president of IATSE, the union that represents behind-the-scenes employees, referred to as for studios and streamers to supply an extension of well being care advantages to those that might lose them in the event that they fall in need of qualifying through the strikes. IATSE shouldn’t be on strike.
“Make no mistake — if the studios truly cared about the economic fallout of their preemptive work slowdown … they could continue to pay crewmembers and fully fund their health care at any moment, as they did in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Loeb wrote.
This article is from a partnership that features LAist, NPR, and KFF Health News.