Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

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Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/27/14 at 9:15pm

What a sad turn of events!

AE Boots Older Actors

"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

Updated On: 10/27/14 at 09:15 PM

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:50am

It's bull like this that makes me think about changing careers.

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:51am

I don't understand how anyone connected with Equity leadership can assent to this.

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 1:04am

It's strange (and sad) that this is legal. Shouldn't this be considered ageist?

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 01:04 AM

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 7:34am

Rotten.

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 7:42am

I find it hard to believe that this is legal.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 8:26am

What is the dollars and cents impact for those affected?

This applies only to members who self-pay in Cobra and are in states where ACA marketplaces exist. This raises the obvious question, would those members be getting better deals under the ACA marketplaces than under Equity's self pay Cobra option?

As far as legality, I'm no expert in this area but I think the only way to show a breach might be to establish that Equity failed in its duty to fair representation by a failure to use its best efforts to adequately bargain with the insurance plans on behalf of its older members in this class. As to the underlying problem, it's well established that age discrimination in insurance coverage is legal.

(Nothing said above disputes that this situation sucks in principle. As does the fact that we don't have real socialized medicine in this country.)

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 08:26 AM

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 9:02am

DISGRACEFUL …...

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 9:23am

henrik-

agree with you and note that the headline is totally misleading (and probably all most folks read).

if there is no change in access to coverage, there is by definition no grounds for complaint, and thus the missing link in the reporting is that we do not yet know if folks being re-routed into exchanges (overall a positive thing in the ACA scheme) will get comparable coverage for more, less or the same cost. If the first, then there is a problem with this. Otherwise, it's smart for all parties concerned. Notable is that the shift requires access both objectively and subjectively, so we will need to see how the latter is administered before there is a problem here. And yes, the real disgrace is that we do not all have coverage on a universal basis.

#10

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 9:31am

Actors Equity proper has no governance over Equity League Pension & Health. They, by law, must be separate organizations.

That letter also has lengthy special exceptions that would allow members to continue to self-pay, based on viability of coverage in their area.

Yes, it's still sucky, but it's not AEA kicking these people out to the curb.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 09:31 AM

#11

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 9:44am

It might also be noted that in other trade unions, when members are not actively working, they are only guaranteed Cobra for a limited time. and this was so beforeACA as well. I have a friend recently on leave from her union job who was on ACA for at least most of her leave and it worked just fine for her and her child. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic (it's always red tape to have to change plans) but this is not the end of the world, there appears to be nothing illegal, and in fact some of these members may actually get better deals for at least comparable plans on the exchange v. what they were paying on Cobra.

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 09:44 AM

#12

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 9:55am

The title of this thread should be re-titled to "Equity LEAGUE Drops Health Coverage for Older Actors."

Actors' Equity and Equity League are two seperate entities. This is a major misconception for most members. Actors' Equity doesn't work directly with insurance and pension.

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 09:55 AM

#13

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:07am

As Hogans suggests, it should really be retitled Please read the link and think critically about the facts before reacting to the oversimplified headline. But that's true about most political discourse these days.

#14

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:38am

Subjective-that is still a wrong headline because it implies all older actors are being dropped when in fact no working actors of any age are losing coverage. The only thing happening here is that non-working actors who have access to other coverage now are being escorted to that coverage. The intelligent issue to discuss is whether the transition from the very special extra benefit post-COBRA actors have been getting to the exchange-based coverage they will get in the future is seamless or not. If it is, then there is no complaint. If it is not, then there is. So let's get the facts first, and then figure out where our energies are most usefully channeled.

#15

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:10am

This can't be true because Obama said, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#16

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:30am

he also said he mis-spoke, Gotham, so what's your point?

#17

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:31am

I think Gotham has to type that anytime health care is discussed, whether it has anything to do with the discussion or not.

#18

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:37am

I am a member of Actors Equity.
It is a disappointing union in so many ways.

Health Insurance used to kick in after 8 weeks
Not so anymore.
There used to be Equity Library Theatre
No so anymore.

They make it cost prohibitive for producers.
That is why so many tours are going non union.

They will do anything to save a buck for the union but
sock it to producers and have no compassion for how much money it takes to put on a show.

#19

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:50am

Cool. Equity League Pension & Health is not operated or owned by AEA.

"They make it cost prohibitive for producers.
That is why so many tours are going non union."

And did you know the majority of AEA membership wants higher pay?

Tours are going non-union because touring is cost prohibitive for everyone, with very little guarantee of return for venue or producer. And producers are more than happy to make cuts at the expense of performers, and they do.

And I'm not sure why this article is spinning this as an Obamacare story. It's not. At all.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 11:50 AM

#20

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:01pm

"he also said he mis-spoke, Gotham, so what's your point?"

The point is that he is the President of the United States but he doesn't have any clue as to what he's doing.

He "mis-spoke"? What a lame excuse. If a Republican tried that, they would be hounded until they resigned from office.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#21

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:04pm

This issue has nothing to do with Obamacare. If anything, the existence of the ACA will provide the few people no longer eligible for self-pay under Equity League plans the chance to BE insured again.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#22

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:05pm

"The point is that he is the President of the United States but he doesn't have any clue as to what he's doing."

When has that been a criteria? Especially after Dubya.

Here are 50 examples of his inability to put a sentence together:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/bushquotes/a/dumbbushquotes.htm

#23

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:14pm

Goth lives in a fantastic world in which he is always right because he never acknowledges things that prove him wrong.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Updated On: 10/28/14 at 12:14 PM

#24

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:42pm

The title of the article is misleading as well.

Chris Brockmeyer, co-chair of the Equity-League Trust Fund, said the trustees did not make the decision lightly. He said the fund is facing negative cash flow and that trustees had been considering the change for years. They waited, he said, until alternatives were available through Obamacare.

“We didn’t want to simply leave these folks out in the cold,” he said. “With the availability of health care under the marketplaces, we made the decision that now was the time.”

...

A spokeswoman for Equity said the union doesn’t speak on behalf of Equity-League health funds or its participants. However, as some actors pointed out, the union took a different stance when drastic health care cuts were made in 2003 and Patrick Quinn -- then the union’s national president -- openly criticized the trustees who made the decision.

I'm sure someone will find a way to blame that on "Obamacare" as well, right?

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#25

Actors Equity Drops Health Coverage For Older Actors

Posted: 10/28/14 at 12:57pm

What's bizarre about the anti-ACA rhetoric is that what is happening here benefits from the ACA, in precisely the way ACA is suppose to help folks at the margins.

People-and that includes the non-working actors who are the putative victims here-don't like change. But change is often for the better, and often that betterment is only manifest post hoc. I think it is important that this change be implemented so as to avoid harm to those that could be harmed by it-something the announcement suggests they intend to do.

Ignorance never helps. And republicans who would thwart the benefits of the ACA have no standing to criticize anything here: in their world, there would be no union at all.

Finally, the difference between Obama and the prior republican administration is that he admits mistakes whereas they lied about them. (See esp. Cheney, Dick.)

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