NPR: Creative inspiration can strike from anywhere. For married couple Ellen Haun and Dru Johnston, both in the entertainment industry, it came from a place of necessity.
Haun is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and realized earlier this fall that she would be $804 short of meeting the minimum earnings required by the union to qualify for health insurance.
5 comments:
I think it is really disgusting that if you are part of a union, you have to make a certain amount in order to claim particular amenities from that union. If you pay to be there or at least get in there, you should be able to utilize the same benefits as the person making the most money in your union. Especially when it comes to healthcare. Healthcare is such a necessity that to say “you can’t have it because you didn’t make enough money this year” seems like a double disservice. If anything, it should be if you make OVER a certain amount, you can’t get healthcare from the union so that there can be more money for deductibles and those who don’t make as much to pay for their insurance. Also, I think it is amazing that she isn’t just raising money for her own healthcare, but for other people in the union who won’t make the quota unless they receive the donations shes raising.
“Ellen Needs Insurance” Is quite literally a comedy from tragedy. The fact that actors both in AEA and SAG have to do this stuff to qualify for a basic human right is ridiculous but the fact that a couple of actors had the idea of doing it themselves and making it happen is brilliant. I also love the expanding of parts to help others in similar situations. Everyone's primary concern when you declare that you are going into the entertainment industry is almost always job stability and insurance which unions provide if you meet a threshold. The fact that someone can dedicate their whole life to something and not qualify for health insurance in my mind is ridiculous and I could say alot about the system as a whole that this article did not call for. Because this is not Canada and Ellen needs insurance a movie is being created out of that adversity and the creative genius behind this project are brilliant.
Theo
As a member of Actor’s Equity Association, I know how difficult it is to maintain your insurance through the unions. In order to have insurance, you have to work consistently and somewhat constantly. It can be difficult when jobs are scarce to be sure that you get insurance and for actors that can be especially difficult if you are a harder to cast type or you have more complex medical problems or a family that prevent you from traveling or require you to look for jobs within a certain area. Equity also raised all of the premiums during the pandemic costing all of their members three times what they previously charged for their insurance premiums. All of this happened literally in the middle of the pandemic when no one was employed and everyone was losing their insurance left and right, not before the pandemic hit. It would be simply a more equitable world if everyone had equal access to healthcare and could receive the necessary care they needed no matter their level of employment.
I found this article, as well as this play's topic to be both extremely true and deeply saddening. I think that we have to write and perform and create shows like this for reasons like that are one of the most glaring signs of our broken healthcare system. This is truly the definition about turning your own personal tragedies into new, groundbreaking, works of art. However, I would want to know, if an actor was only seventy one dollars away from meeting their pay goal, would they still only pay that much? Is that ethical payment considering the amount of work that actors need to do in order to perform onstage? I am sure that, were there a case like this, they would pay fairly, but it’s still definitely something to think about. Anyways, I just hate that we live in a world where this needs to happen. I feel like it’s almost made worse by the way the media always quirkifies it into “haha I need basic health support- better create work” as an uplifting story, instead of the upsetting perspective it can lend.
This is pretty phenomenal. Obviously, it’s frustrating that you have to make almost $30,000 through SAG contracts to qualify for health insurance, but the fact the she was only $800 short is incredibly stupid. I presume that SAG (much like Equity) has a percentage that is paid into the health benefits fund based on the contract with the producer. Even if the pay in was as high as 20%, that means SAG is only getting an additional $200 or so from the producer to cover (which is a pretty small amount.) Not saying that this is the ideal, but it seems reasonable that people shouldn’t have to produce a short film with the express purpose of getting health insurance - they should probably just be able to pay the percentage difference needed to get them covered. In her case, I’m guessing it’s less than $200 so she should be able to pay that money out of pocket if she so chooses.
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