Hollywood strikes could leave some actors and writers without health insurance : Shots

America Ferrera joins the SAG-AFTRA picket line in front of Netflix in New York City. Actors who qualify get a very good deal on health insurance from their union.

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The issues dominating the dual Hollywood strikes by actors and writers are artificial intelligence, residual payments and job protections. But one topic that’s often a contentious point in labor negotiations – health insurance – has slipped under the radar.

A-list stars have been out in force snapping selfies on picket lines in the bright California sun, but it’s the people who may have never walked the red carpet who are forgoing a paycheck and potentially their health insurance as the negotiations drag on and work dries up.

The health insurance offered by both unions is predicated on the notion that it is for members who work consistently and lucratively enough to make a minimum amount of money. That makes the insurance difficult first to attain and then to sustain. In exchange, it is very, very good health insurance.

Holdover from a bygone age

Often referred to in hushed, reverent tones as the “Cadillac of health insurance” by those who have it, the policy offered by the screenwriters guild, for instance, feels like a holdover from a bygone age. It has no monthly premiums, costs $600 per year to cover the rest of your immediate family and has deductibles that are in the hundreds – not thousands – of dollars.

But the biggest strike in more than six decades in Hollywood threatens that security. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2, and the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, since mid-July. Together they…