Hard Choices To Save SAG-AFTRA’s Troubled Health Plan; 3,500 Performers & 2,800 Dependents Projected To Lose Benefits Next Year Under Restructuring
David Robb Labor EditorHard times call for hard decisions, which trustees of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan say they had to make to save health benefits for future generations of participants.Even before the pandemic, the Plan was facing unsustainable deficits, and the COVID-19 production shutdown accelerated the need for a complete overhaul of its benefits structures. Sources familiar with the Plan’s projections say that roughly 3,500 participants and more than 2,800 of their dependents no longer will qualify for health coverage because of the new earnings requirements that take effect on January 1.