Featuring Ayesha Orange, SAG-AFTRA member and working dancer/choreographer in Hollywood, on the challenges performers currently face getting enough of the “right kind of work” to qualify for employer-subsidized health insurance. And what now? Upcoming changes to the union benefit plan will make it even harder. . .
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Changes to SAG-AFTRA’s benefit plans concern working-age performers and retirees alike. What happens when an artist can’t get enough work to qualify for benefits – like, during a pandemic? And what about COBRA? Ayesha Orange, professional dancer and choreographer, and a single mom, joins host Brenda Gazzar to discuss how changes to SAG-AFTRA’s benefit plans are throwing even more worries into the mix ahead of 2021.
Don’t ‘break a leg!’ Health benefit changes are coming to Tinseltown
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(10-Second music)
Welcome to Code WACK!, your podcast on America’s broken healthcare system and how Medicare for All could help. I’m your host, Brenda Gazzar.
Today, we’ll talk about how a dancer in Hollywood is faring amid the coronavirus pandemic — and why this single mom is scrambling to pay for health coverage.
(5-second Stinger music)
The words “shagadelic, baby” were made famous by Mike Meyers in the Austin Powers spy action comedy series. I recently talked to one of the dancers in that trilogy about the challenges of trying to eke out a living during the pandemic. And as you’ll hear, it’s definitely not all groovy.
Orange: My name is Ayesha Orange. I have been dancing now for let’s just say over 20 years. (laughter) My first real big dance job was 1996, I believe, with Austin Powers and I’ve been in all three. Right now, I’ve been assisting a lot of choreographers and dancing, kind of doing both — being on both sides of the camera — and a single mom working my way through this pandemic.
Q: Right, right. So how has the pandemic affected your career?
Orange: I mean, I haven’t been working. I mean, it’s starting to slither back in now that people know how to, they created a protocol, you know, requirements to be on set and to be able to, you know, be around each other and dance and move. And there’s crew members, there’s directors and producers, there’s dancers and actors. So it took awhile for them to figure out how to do all of that safely. Throughout, I would say the first couple of months, nothing. I lost a job. I got a dream job choreographing for a commercial in Spain and I was supposed to leave March 15 and couldn’t do it.
Q: And tell us about SAG-AFTRA. I understand you’ve been a member for many years and you’ve gotten your health coverage through them. Is that right?
Orange: Yes, I’ve been there, I’ve been with them since I believe 1997. And I have, I think maybe one year out of my career that I did not work a lot because I was pregnant and had a baby and I wasn’t able to meet the – how much you need to make or how many days on set that you have been on. And I couldn’t. I was huge and taking care of a little one. So through I want to say 1997 to next year, I have always had health insurance. And after I had my child, I am so grateful for that health insurance. I didn’t know how to take care of an infant or toddler. You know, he’s six now so shots, dentist, physicals.
Q: Yeah, right, right. And so tell us the latest development with your health plan?
Orange: Well, instead of making around I believe it was $13,000. It’s an approximate of $13,000, you would be able to get a plan 2. That includes dancers, some stunt people, extras, the elderly. It’s not easy to get a dance job, a (Screen Actors Guild) dance job. There are artists who aren’t covered by SAG , maybe their video is but not their tour. You know, you just have to get a SAG job in order to get those credits. So that’s plan 2. And Plan 1 was at a higher amount.
What they did was raise the amount. It went from $13,000 to $25,000 something. Being what you need to make in order to be qualified for insurance or be on set for 100 days. Who has worked? Who has been on set since March until maybe last month, maybe two months ago. How could I have accumulated 100 days? How could I have accumulated that amount of money? I will say that I almost made it. I was like a good seven grand until I would get insurance. I’m blessed, you know, but didn’t make it. I made enough but I just didn’t make enough for them.
Q: So what does that mean? Does that mean that you were kicked off your health plan?
Orange: Next year, January. I have nothing. I have Cobra. Now, my insurance for my child and I, what was so wonderful about it is that quarterly, I would pay $408 bucks for me and my son. Now with Cobra, I will be paying $333 a month for me and my son. Now I’m sure that that is reasonable for a lot of people with health plans, you know, but that’s a big jump. That is a huge undertaking, to now not only do I have to try to make this amount for the SAG job credits for the following year, I’m going to have to pay even more money a month. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.
Thank you Ayesha. Find more Code WACK! episodes on Progressive Voices.com and on the PV app. You can also subscribe to Code WACK! wherever you find your podcasts. This podcast is powered by HEAL California, uplifting the voices of those fighting for healthcare reform around the country. I’m Brenda Gazzar.
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