Last time, we spoke to David L. Lander, the actor who played Squiggy on Laverne and Shirley, and his wife, Kathy Fields Lander. They’re retired actors and longtime SAG-AFTRA members bracing themselves for dramatic changes to their health plan. This is worrisome because David Lander really needs good health coverage. He’s had Multiple Sclerosis for 37 years.
Here’s his wife Kathy Fields Lander, a longtime Medicare for All advocate.
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How does having to work to get employer-sponsored health insurance affect Americans with chronic illness? Does managing health insurance get any easier after retirement? (Hint – not necessarily.) Are Medicare Advantage plans really advantageous? And for whom? Retired actor Kathy Fields Lander, wife of actor and comedian David L. Lander, and host Brenda Gazzar talk about how fears for a loved one’s health care can keep family members up at night, and the importance of health care to our democracy.
Lights! Camera! Uninsured! Hollywood elites face healthcare hassles
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(Music, 10 seconds)
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 continue our discussion about changes being made to the SAG-AFTRA health plan.
(5-second Stinger music)
Last time, we spoke to David L. Lander, the actor who played Squiggy on Laverne and Shirley, and his wife, Kathy Fields Lander. They’re retired actors and longtime SAG-AFTRA members bracing themselves for dramatic changes to their health plan. This is worrisome because David Lander really needs good health coverage. He’s had Multiple Sclerosis for 37 years.
Here’s his wife Kathy Fields Lander, a longtime Medicare for All advocate.
Welcome to Code WACK! Kathy.
Q: I wanted to ask you what healthcare struggles you and your husband David have faced over the years and how have they affected you?
Kathy Fields Lander: Well, it’s been quite a struggle, you know, obviously I administrate everything for David. David’s the one who’s had all the health issues, and just getting through the system is complicated. So, at first, before we were on Medicare, we were dealing with Blue Cross through the Screen Actors Guild, and there are certain qualifications to get it, and with someone being ill and getting sicker and sicker it was harder and harder for him to work so it was like, you know, dealing with the pushing to get the required hours or minimum wage requirements.
So it was years and years of that to try to stay on the insurance, and then we went on to Medicare and he went on early, a couple of years early, for disability. We then switched to where Medicare was primary and the Blue Cross from Screen Actors Guild was secondary, and that went pretty smoothly. In terms of getting through the system. I mean, Medicare was easier, much easier to deal with than Blue Cross in general. So now we find ourselves in a position where the Screen Actors Guild has decided that as people are in retirement and on Medicare, which used to be kind of “a lifetime benefit” with retirement, but not promised. They have taken it away as of two or three weeks ago. So now we find ourselves without any secondary insurance, no vision, no dental and no drug plan starting the first of the year.
Q: So what are some of your options?
Kathy: And then, of course, you know everyone says “oh, well the Advantage Plans are great, everything’s free and no deductible and no this and you get vision and you get that and you get…” Yes, right. However, what most people don’t know is that these plans are basically the privatization of Medicare. What these plans do is the insurance company has you assign them your Medicare benefits and they own it, and that’s it and there’s no going back. And so therefore what they’re doing is they’re the ones making the decisions about approving what’s allotted. Now it’s true they have certain Medicare guidelines they have to go by but generally speaking, they are the overseer of your health care. So we’re right back in the position we were before we were on Medicare, where if we got that, we would have a private insurance company denying him things because he’s this, so sick, or they don’t want to take care of it. They have the right to do that. So of course, you know, I say to everybody ‘watch out for Advantage plans’ because they have nothing to do with Medicare.
And so you are kind of between a rock and a hard place, you know, just like we hear the old thing of seniors are trying to figure out if they pay for their drugs or their meals. It’s true. They get coerced into these privatization plans from insurance companies and basically, that’s going to undermine Medicare. And what we’re all trying to do is get Medicare for everybody because if everybody was in the Medicare system, what it does is it spreads out the risk pool.
Q: Wow. So how did you first get involved in being an advocate for Medicare for All? Was it because of David’s sickness and you scrambling to get him coverage?
Kathy: I mean, yeah. I’ve been scrambling since … we were 40 years old when this all started. So I had a long time before Medicare and then I got on Medicare and I went, ‘Oh, phew, that’s better.’ And that was pretty good and comfortable, with the Screen Actors Guild supporting the 20% and everything like that and it was bad enough that he was not well but at least I didn’t have to worry nights about how he was going to get taken care of… and I’m right back at 73 years old where I was when I was 40 years old, trying to figure out what to do and stay ahead of the game, and this time I have no answers.
So the thing is and the reason why I’m so involved and have always been involved besides my personal issues is that it’s for everybody. If they drop Medicare and Obamacare, we have millions of people who are not going to be taken care of in this country, and with a sick country, you have a sick economy, you have a sick government. You have sick everything. I mean you can’t have a well country, unless you’re taking care of your people and keeping them well…Every civilized nation has some form of health care for everybody. And that’s just what it should be called — health care for everybody. I mean everyone should have health care, it’s a right, it’s not a privilege, it’s not just for the wealthy and it just needs to be addressed now because we’re really in dire straits at this point. Our country is in dire straits and if we lose everybody’s health care on top of it all, this country will not survive and will be taken over by a dictator … or it will be taken over. We will lose our democracy, if people can’t keep their heads above water.
Find more Code WACK! episodes at ProgressiveVoices.com and on the PV app. You can also listen at HEAL-ca.org. 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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