www.ibtimes.com: They spent decades singing and dancing their hearts out for eight shows a week, but now the curtain is closing on their health care coverage. Hundreds of older stage actors are being kicked off the Actors’ Equity Association health insurance plan after the organization that manages the plan decided the actors were no longer cost-effective, according to people familiar with the situation.
2 comments:
Wow.... Everything I have learned about unions has left me with the following sentiment - They are a force for good but when they get too powerful they become more worried about the union itself then its members. You can't just boot the people who most expensive to lower your medical insurance plan. The entire point of insurance is to cover you when you reach the point where you are that expensive person. Its no surprise that big business does this all the time, but a union? I think Equity is forgetting that its first responsibility is to its members which is odd because isn't that their sole purpose?
I can’t believe that Equity-League can legally do this, but more shocking is that they would. I understand that like anything else, it’s a business and a business decision, but (at least in my understanding) the Actor’s Equity Association has been one of the most protective labor organizations, always looking out for their members fairly in a highly competitive and relatively dangerous and physically stressful occupation. That they are just leaving these older members out in the cold is truly appalling. I think that the one quote sums it up best: “Of course, we’re not cost-effective,” said one actor. “We’re older people. You don’t just isolate a few people, the ones who are costing you the most money. That’s not what insurance is.” “
Many of these performers have spent their young days working professionally, injuring themselves and working physically hard, with the understanding that when the time came to finally pay those healthcare expenses years down the road, that the Equity-League fund would have their back. This is a terrible thing, and this is going to be the start of something even worse down the road.
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