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Actress Miki Yamashita underwent a medical diagnosis in April that required surgery to remove a noncancerous tumor, she said. The actress, who has appeared in Cobra Kai and voiced a character in The Lion Guard, has begun efforts to qualify for union health insurance by June 30. If she earns enough money or works enough days on necessary projects by then, she says, she could be eligible for insurance at that point, even though she needs to undergo the medical procedure at the end of the year.
But meeting the plan’s requirements was harder than usual. For nearly four months of her eligibility period, her union, SAG-AFTRA, was on strike against film and TV companies, and Yamashita was barred from many projects by union rules. For months afterward, production never fully recovered in the Los Angeles area as the entertainment industry continued to shrink. Yamashita, who said she had intermittently covered union health insurance throughout her career and sometimes had separate insurance through outside work, was about $12,000 short of the required income threshold by mid-June. (As a performer focused on starring roles, she says, meeting the alternative requirement of a certain number of work days is not realistic. Yamashita, an elected representative of the union, spoke for herself, not SAG-AFTRA.) “Unless a miracle happens, I don’t see how we’re actually going to meet the threshold by 2020,” she said. [June] “Until I’m 30,” she said, “I’m going to keep trying until that date,” after which she plans to look into other health insurance options.
More than half a year has passed since Hollywood’s historic double strike officially ended, and other writers and actors find themselves in a similar position. SAG-AFTRA performers will generally need to earn at least $27,000 in covered income or work at least 104 days in a 12-month period to qualify for health insurance starting in 2024. (As of 2023, before the SAG-AFTRA strike, only about 25,000 of the union’s roughly 160,000 members met this requirement.) Meanwhile, Writers Guild of America members will need to earn $43,862 in covered income over four quarters to qualify for the Writers Guild Industry Health Fund, and $45,397 after July 1.
To be sure, after the months of strikes, health insurance associations have shown some leniency to their members. The Writers Guild Industrial Health Insurance Fund and the Writers Guild of America African Trust Health Insurance Association, which are run separately from the affiliated unions and controlled by union and management trustees, are offering members a one-quarter extension of health insurance coverage if they meet certain conditions.
While these extensions add time, they’re no panacea for some of their members. In a statement, the Writers Guild of America West admitted Hollywood executives were to blame. “Studio decisions over the past few years have disrupted industry jobs, reduced the number of projects being developed and produced, and forced two strikes. The union cares deeply about screenwriters who will lose their insurance, and will continue to fight for quality health care for screenwriters and work with organizations like the Entertainment Community Fund to help them access it when union insurance lapses,” the union said.
Meanwhile, creatives at all levels are scrambling to meet the requirements. David Radcliffe, a writer for Tracker and Waffles + Mochi, is $5,000 shy of re-qualifying for the Writers Guild Industrial Health Fund. After receiving an extension to his coverage, he has until September 30 to make up the income gap. “For someone who uses a wheelchair, who uses crutches, who has this condition for the rest of their life, having insurance, especially a strong insurance like the Writers Guild offers, gives you peace of mind and stability,” says Radcliffe, who has cerebral palsy. He’s trying to stay “neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic” as he considers whether he’ll be able to re-qualify this fall.
William Sadler, a veteran actor who has appeared in Hawaii Five-O, The Shawshank Redemption and Die Hard 2, said he has been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1977 and has never had trouble getting union health insurance. He said he turned down work a year ago because he wanted to spend time with his wife at home in southeast New York, after the strike reduced his options during the certification period.
Sadler said he hopes to meet the income threshold by September 30 without being away from his wife, who is also on the plan, for an extended period of time. “It’s a terrible situation at the best of times, but it’s made worse by the fact that I feel really desperate to find a job that meets these requirements,” Sadler said. “Now is not the time to be without health insurance.” For now, Sadler said he plans to take a short-term job in Los Angeles that would normally be hired locally, and pay for his own travel and living expenses.
SAG-AFTRA member Chelsea Schwartz (Rebel Moon Parts 1 and 2) has been in the union for almost a decade, and for most of that time she has had union health insurance and has done understudy and background work. She lost her SAG-AFTRA insurance in early 2024, but she says it was because she had less work during the actors and writers strike. Now, she’s trying to work another 65 days through Sept. 30. It’s a tough time as Hollywood continues to downsize. “I’ve never seen this industry go this slow. I’m probably posting at least 100 posts a week. [and] On average, I’m on set about four days a month.”
Meanwhile, 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 income thresholds by June 30. “If you’re an actor of some profile, it doesn’t feel right to have to go to your agent and say, ‘Hey, can you help me get some guest-starring work in anything with people my age, because otherwise I’m going to lose my health insurance?’ It shouldn’t be that way,” she says.
The situation has been noticed by casting directors, who in some cases have helped actors reach the qualification standards. Casting director Tineka Becker (Mysterious Benedict Society, Heist) said the casting community has several private Facebook groups and that “over the last four years, [there has been] This is a very visible, concerted effort to share information about actors who are at risk of losing their health insurance and actually try to solve the problem by finding them roles.”
Actors and writers have also taken to social media to talk about their difficulties in obtaining qualifications. Yamashita posted a video asking for help finding work on May 10; the video was shared and liked by thousands of people on X Platform alone. Since then, she says, she’s been “working pretty steadily.” “I’ve been incredibly humbled and blessed by the outpouring of goodwill.”
Author Carlos Sisco (Star Trek: Discovery, East Los Angeles High) is among the workers who opened up about their health insurance situation at X. In Sisco’s case, his insurance will lapse after June 30. He said his “ship has sailed” by re-qualifying for a health insurance plan before it expired, and he applied for Medicare.
Overall, going public wasn’t a difficult decision for Cisco. He was inspired by seeing other writers doing the same thing. “If there’s one thing we learned from the strike, it’s [that] “We need to be open about our problems with each other,” he says. “Often we have the same issues and we’re not as isolated as we think we are.”