In April, actress Miki Yamashita said she had been diagnosed with a condition that required surgery to remove non-cancerous tumors. That’s when the performer, who appeared in Cobra Kai and gave his voice to a character on The Lion Guardbegan the race to try to qualify for his union’s health insurance plan before June 30. If she earned enough on qualifying projects or worked a sufficient number of days at that time, she could be covered by the plan at the end of the year, when she says she needs to undergo a medical procedure.
But meeting the plan’s requirements was going to be more difficult than usual. For nearly four months of his eligibility period, his union, SAG-AFTRA, was on strike against film and television companies, and Yamashita was barred by union rules from working on many projects. In the months that followed, production did not fully resume in the Los Angeles area as the entertainment industry continued to experience contraction. As of mid-June, Yamashita — who says he has benefited from the union health plan intermittently throughout his career and has sometimes obtained different coverage through outside jobs — was still about $12,000 in below the required income threshold. (As an artist who focuses on work as a lead actress, she says it is less realistic for her to meet the alternative requirement of a particular number of days worked. Yamashita, who is an elected delegate of the union, spoke on her own behalf and not on behalf of SAG-AFTRA.) “Barring a miracle, I doubt that I will actually reach the threshold by (June) 30,” said- She. “I will continue to hustle until that deadline comes,” after which she will evaluate other health insurance options.
More than six months after Hollywood’s historic double strike officially ended, other writers and actors are finding themselves in a similar situation. SAG-AFTRA performers generally must earn at least $27,000 in covered income or work at least 104 days in a 12-month period to qualify for health insurance coverage starting in 2024. (In 2023, before the SAG-AFTRA strike, only about 25,000 union members out of about 160,000 met those requirements.) Writers Guild of America members, meanwhile, must earn $43,862 in covered income over four quarters to be eligible for the Writers Guild-Industry Health Fund; starting July 1, they must earn $45,397.
To be sure, health insurance plans offer some leniency to participants after months of strikes. The Writers Guild-Industry Health Fund and the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, which operate independently of their affiliated unions and are managed by trustees drawn from both union and management, offer one-quarter extensions of health coverage if union members meet certain requirements.
These extensions saved time, but were not a panacea for some members, as the Writers Guild of America West acknowledged in a statement placing the blame on Hollywood management. “Decisions made by studios in recent years have disrupted employment in the industry: they reduced the number of projects developed and produced and forced two strikes. The Guild cares deeply about writers who lose coverage and will continue to fight for quality health care for writers and work with organizations like the Entertainment Community Fund to ensure access when Guild coverage expires.” , said the Guild.
Meanwhile, creatives of all levels are scrambling to meet the demands. Tracker And Waffles + Mochi Writer David Radcliff is $5,000 away from requalifying for the Writers Guild’s Industry Health Fund. After receiving an extension of coverage, he must make up the shortfall by Sept. 30. Radcliff, who has cerebral palsy, says, “For someone who uses a wheelchair and crutches and has a chronic illness, having insurance, especially solid insurance like the Writers Guild offers, provides a sense of security and stability.” He says he tries not to be “too optimistic or too pessimistic” as he considers requalifying this fall.
William Sadler, a veteran performer who has played roles in Hawaii five-0, The Shawshank Redemption And Die Hard 2, has been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1977 and doesn’t recall having difficulty qualifying for union health insurance in years past. A year ago, he says, his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he has since turned down his job because of a desire to spend time with her in their southeast New York home. Meanwhile, there were fewer choices during its qualifying period due to strikes.
Sadler says he’s trying to reach his income threshold by Sept. 30 without spending long periods away from his wife, who is also on the plan. “It’s a terrible situation at the best of times, but it’s made worse by the fact that I really feel like I’m under pressure to find a job that meets that requirement,” he says. “This is not the time to be without health insurance.” For now, Sadler says he’s considering taking a quick job in Los Angeles that would normally be hired by a local and he would pay for his own travel and stay there.
Chelsea Schwartz, SAG-AFTRA member (Rebel Moon parts one and two) has been a member of the union for almost a decade and has been on its health plan for most of that time, doing locum and substantive work. She lost her SAG-AFTRA insurance in early 2024, which she says is due to a drop in work during the actors’ and writers’ strikes. Now she’s trying to work 65 more days between now and September 30. This is proving difficult in the context of Hollywood’s current contraction: “It’s the slowest pace I’ve ever seen in my industry. I probably submit at least a hundred posts a week, (and) I think I average four days on set a month.
A veteran SAG-AFTRA actress who declined to be named but is starring in a summer movie is also at risk of losing her insurance and must meet her earnings threshold by June 30. “For a certain profile, it doesn’t feel good to have to say to your agents, ‘Hey, can you get me a guest spot on anything that happens to someone my age because otherwise I’m going to lose my health insurance?’ It shouldn’t be like that,” she said.
The situation has not gone unnoticed by casting directors, who sometimes try to help actors reach their qualification thresholds. Casting director Tineka Becker (The mysterious Benedict Society, Heist) says the casting community has a few private Facebook groups where “over the last four years, (there has been) a very obvious and concerted effort to both share information about actors at risk of losing their health insurance and to actually try to help casting actors with the problem by trying to find them roles.”
Actors and writers are also revealing their struggles to qualify on social media. Yamashita posted a video on May 10 asking for help finding work; it was shared and liked by thousands of people on the X platform alone. Since then, she has been “working pretty steadily,” she says. “I have been incredibly touched and blessed by this outpouring of goodwill.”
The writer Carlos Cisco (Star Trek: Discovery, East Los High) is another worker who disclosed his health insurance status on X — in his case, he’s set to lose his coverage after June 30. He says his “ship has sailed” now to requalify for the health insurance plan before it expires, and he’s applied for Medi-Cal.
Overall, the decision to go public wasn’t a difficult one for Cisco. He was inspired by seeing another writer do the same. “If there’s one thing we all learned from the strike, more than anything, it’s that we need to talk openly about our problems with each other,” he says. “Most often we share the same problems and we are not as isolated as we think. »
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News Source : www.hollywoodreporter.com
