“Thousands of actors, musicians, dancers and other entertainment industry workers are losing their health insurance or being saddled with higher costs in the midst of a global health crisis,” write Matt Stevens and Jeremy Fassler in Tuesday’s (3/9) New York Times. “Some were simply unable to work enough hours last year to qualify for coverage. But others were in plans that made it harder to qualify for coverage as they struggled to remain solvent as the collapse of the entertainment industry led to a steep drop in the employer contributions they rely on…. Several provisions in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, which passed the Senate on Saturday and is expected to pass the House on Wednesday, offer the promise of relief…. Officials at Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, the New York local that is the largest in the nation, estimate that when changes to its plan take effect this month, roughly one in three musicians will have lost coverage.… ‘Nothing has kept me up at night more and weighed on me more heavily than the health care question,’ said Adam Krauthamer, the president of Local 802 and a trustee co-chair of the union’s health fund.”
Change font size
