To Get Well being Insurance coverage, This Couple Made a Film

Dan Weissmann

Final fall, Ellen Haun and Dru Johnston had been hustling to get their medical health insurance sorted out for 2023. The Hollywood couple are members of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors and writers. Members need to earn about $26,000 a yr on union initiatives to be eligible for union insurance coverage.

And Haun was about $800 brief.

When she couldn’t e-book the gigs she wanted, Haun, with husband Johnston’s assist, got here up with a plan: to crowdfund sufficient cash to make their very own film starring Haun, referred to as “Ellen Wants Insurance coverage.”

On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann speaks with Haun and Johnston about their brief movie, how they had been affected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and their ongoing quest to remain insured.

Dan Weissmann

@danweissmann

Host and producer of “An Arm and a Leg.” Beforehand, Dan was a workers reporter for Market and Chicago’s WBEZ. His work additionally seems on All Issues Thought-about, Market, the BBC, 99 P.c Invisible, and Reveal, from the Middle for Investigative Reporting.

Credit

Emily Pisacreta
Producer

Adam Raymonda
Audio wizard

Ellen Weiss
Editor

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Transcript: To Get Well being Insurance coverage, This Couple Made a Film

Be aware: “An Arm and a Leg” makes use of speech-recognition software program to generate transcripts, which can include errors. Please use the transcript as a instrument however verify the corresponding audio earlier than quoting the podcast.

Dan: Hey there. OK, right here’s one thing I by no means anticipated to say — I’ve obtained a humorous, sort of candy story about medical health insurance. OK, perhaps candy and bitter. Right here it’s …

As we file this, it’s November, which suggests it’s open enrollment for plenty of folks — time to get subsequent yr’s medical health insurance discovered, each on the Obamacare exchanges and at a lot of workplaces. A yr in the past, Ellen Haun and her husband Dru Johnston had been HUSTLING to get their medical health insurance arrange for 2023. In probably the most artistic attainable approach … by crowdfunding a artistic venture. They posted a video in fact.

Ellen: Hello, I’m Ellen, and I would like medical health insurance. 

Dru: And I’m Dru, and I additionally want medical health insurance.

Dan: Ellen and Dru work in Hollywood — appearing and writing — and people in that trade get their insurance coverage by way of the unions. However provided that they’ve racked up sufficient wages for union work over a 12-month interval. They’d been on Ellen’s insurance coverage by way of the actors’ union, SAG. However final fall, as they defined of their crowdfunding video, that union insurance coverage wasn’t trying like a certain factor for the approaching yr.

Dru: Proper now, Ellen is $804 brief. So we’re making a brief movie. 

Ellen: And that brief movie is known as “Ellen Wants Insurance coverage.”

Dan: The video outlined their plan: to make use of not simply Ellen however different actors who additionally wanted a little bit assist getting over the end line to qualify.

Dru: Additionally, which brings up the following level, are you an actor that’s near hitting your medical health insurance? Then please get in contact.

Ellen: Sure, we need to solid you. We would like you to have insurance coverage.

Dru: And if we increase extra money than our purpose, we’ll use all of that solely

in direction of casting extra actors and getting them insurance coverage. 

Ellen: We’ll add components. We don’t care.

Dru: Yeah, this isn’t Shakespeare. This can be a script we wrote. We’ll add components.

Ellen: We will … We’ll make them up.

Dan: That was a yr in the past. And spoiler: They did make the movie. After all now they want insurance coverage for 2024. And Ellen’s union spent a number of 2023 on strike, which has narrowed down the alternatives to earn that insurance coverage once more. So… I needed to speak with them!

[“An Arm and a Leg” theme music plays.]

That is “An Arm and a Leg” — a present about why well being care prices so freaking a lot, and what we are able to perhaps do about it. I’m Dan Weissmann. I’m a reporter, and I like a problem.

So the job we’ve picked right here is to take one of the vital enraging, terrifying, miserable components of American life, and convey you one thing entertaining, empowering and helpful.

[“An Arm and a Leg” theme music ends.]

Ellen and Dru met at a marriage.

Ellen: I used to be mates with the bride and Drew was mates with the groom. And on the bachelorette celebration, Emily had been, like, speaking about all the only guys that had been going to be on the marriage ceremony, however she had forgot to incorporate Dru on that record. So I used to be like, simply, I used to be like, why is that this man speaking to me a lot? He’s most likely obtained a girlfriend someplace.

Dru: Seems I didn’t. After which, uh, we ended up, uh, beginning to date virtually instantly after that marriage ceremony.

Dan: By then, Ellen was incomes sufficient as an actor to qualify for medical health insurance, beginning with an advert for Xfinity Web and a recurring position as a regulation pupil on “How one can Get Away with Homicide.”

Viola Davis: Ms. Chapin, are you able to inform us what the Fifth Modification is?

Ellen: The Fifth Modification? Um, proper.

It, um, assures your proper to safety from self incrimination.

Viola Davis: Are you asking me?

Ellen: No, that’s my reply.

Viola Davis: And it’s an accurate one.

Dan: Getting that insurance coverage was an enormous skilled milestone. Greater than 85 % of SAG members don’t e-book sufficient union work to qualify– it takes about 26 thousand {dollars} throughout a one-year interval. (And, you recognize, in fact most actors, Ellen included, decide up different work on the facet, and even maintain down a day job.) For many of the previous few years, Ellen had no worries about making sufficient cash to qualify for insurance coverage. She’d been getting paid for a business that ran and ran, as a result of it was so terrific. You might have seen it. Even I’ve seen it … and I kinda by no means watch TV. Ellen performs BOTH components in it. She’s name middle worker

Claire in Phoenix: That is Claire in Phoenix, can I enable you? 

Dan: And he or she’s a lady who’s dialed in for buyer assist. 

Ellen as buyer: Sure.

Claire in Phoenix: Nice.

Ellen as buyer: Appropriate.

Claire in Phoenix: Ma’am. This isn’t an automatic pc.

Ellen as buyer: Operator?

Claire in Phoenix: Ma’am? I’m right here. I’m reside.

Ellen as buyer: Wait, you’re actual?

Claire in Phoenix: Yeah! With Uncover Card, you may speak to an actual individual.

Dan: Ellen had been getting a “holding payment” — to maintain her from auditioning for commercials for opponents.

Ellen: And I sort of knew at the back of my thoughts that like, okay, finally this holding payment goes to go away as a result of this business isn’t working anymore.

Dan: After which final June, she obtained the decision.

Ellen: My agent was like, Hey, they’re releasing you from the holds. Uh, you’re not getting that fee. You, um, you’re free to audition for different commercials.

And I used to be like, okay, however what about that medical health insurance?

Dan: This was in June. She wanted to make one other 6 thousand {dollars}, by the top of December, to maintain her insurance coverage.

Ellen: And I believed, okay, I’ve obtained half the yr. Like that’s simply reserving like one different business.

Dan: However that wasn’t a certain factor. She’d achieved it for years and years, however she needed to hedge her bets. She experimented with working as an additional.

Ellen: And I used to be getting like, fairly constant work, but in addition background work doesn’t pay very effectively.

Dan: $187 a day. Extra if there’s additional time, however nonetheless. It’s not that it’s not that a lot, particularly in case you’re attempting to chip away at like a 6,000 stability.

I used to be like, I don’t know if I’m going to make this, um, I knew that it was positively going to be right down to the wire. In order that’s once I was like, you recognize what, perhaps we must always take into consideration making a film about this.

Dan: Truly, this was an concept that had sort of been on Dru’s shelf for just a few years. As a comedy author for a TV speak present, Dru had gotten his insurance coverage from the screenwriter’s union, the WGA. After which in 2018 the present obtained canceled. Fortunate for Drew, he was married to Ellen by then, in order that they put him on her SAG insurance coverage. After which after that saga had ended, he had a enjoyable thought.

Dru: I used to be like, oh, you recognize what I ought to have achieved is I ought to have simply made an online sequence referred to as, “Dru Wants Insurance coverage.” After which I used to be like, effectively, it’s too late. I suppose that’s an concept that I’m by no means going to need to do. After which flash ahead.

Dan: They’re in the identical boat! once more.

Besides now, it’s Ellen who’s brief, and nothing to fall again on. I requested in the event that they remembered the day once they determined to strive making the movie. Dru was like, …

Dru: It was within the OBGYN’s workplace.

Dan: Yeah. They had been pregnant! This was the primary physician go to.

Dru: We had gone to the ultrasound. We noticed the child. We heard the heartbeat. We had been like, effectively, that we had been having the child. It’s coming.

Dan: Now they had been gonna see the physician, discuss subsequent steps.

Dru: And we had about 20 minutes in that ready room, simply sitting there sort of going like, okay, our life’s gonna change.

We obtained to make some, some decisions, or we obtained to, like, work out, like, what room are we going to make use of? All that stuff. But in addition in the midst of that, we had been like, oh, additionally our medical health insurance goes … is about to expire.

Dan: Truly, it was going to expire precisely one month earlier than the child’s due date.

Dru: And I used to be like, effectively, shit, we’d like that medical health insurance. Um, and, and that’s when Ellen stated, I believe I must make a film and we have to try this.

Dan: In order that they did! They banged out a script — and introduced a buddy’s manufacturing firm on board. (The union doesn’t allow you to simply pay your self straight.) Which brings us to the purpose within the story once they made that crowdfunding video

[Bouncy music plays in the background.]

Dru: It’s a comedy about an actress named Ellen, and the issues she does to get insurance coverage.

Ellen: Issues like begging my agent for a job, praying to the gods for a shock residual verify, and even background work.

Additionally, the film’s nearly how laborious it’s to navigate insurance coverage on this nation.

[Bouncy music ends.

Dan: How’d it come out? That’s next.

This episode of “An Arm and a Leg” is produced in partnership with KFF Health News. That’s a nonprofit newsroom covering health care in America. Their journalism is terrific– wins all kinds of awards every year– and I’m honored to work with them.

Dan: So, Ellen and Dru did raise the money: more than 33 thousand dollars. They actually did beat their goal. The movie is delightfully meta. It starts with Ellen-the-character in her kitchen in the middle of a conversation with her best friend …

Best Friend: Why can’t you just pay the difference?

Ellen: Oh yeah, I tried. But I called and they told me that’s not allowed.

Best Friend: I thought that was the whole thing about health insurance in this country. You have to pay for it.

Ellen: Apparently, not when you want to. If I want to keep my health insurance, I have to book another SAG job by the end of the year.

Best Friend: Couldn’t you cast yourself in something?

Ellen: Like in what, my own movie? Yeah. I mean, I’d have to get funding,

write a script, hire a production team, get a payroll company, …

Dan: So just like the real Ellen did, movie-Ellen decides to go all out to book another commercial. And if you ever thought it might be fun to take a crack at a career in acting, the audition scene — with Ellen and a casting director — that might dissuade you.

Casting director: Alright, we’ll start on action and, uh, remember, this determines whether or not you can see a doctor in the next year.

Dan: Soon, we see Ellen looking up COBRA — which you may have looked up yourself, like if you ever left a job without your next gig — and your next insurance — lined up.

COBRA pitch: Losing your health insurance?

Don’t worry. It happens all the time. Cobra is here for you. …

Dan: And if you’ve looked at it, you know: COBRA is EXPENSIVE. Like, average employer coverage for a family costs more than 20 thousand dollars a year. So that’s the price range for COBRA.

COBRA pitch: The fact that it’s named after a deadly and venomous snake is just part of the fun, and has nothing to do with the fact that it feels like death. You made less money, and now you have to pay more.

Dan: On her agent’s advice, Ellen tries background work, another case of art imitating life. And, in a scene that really highlights some of the peculiarities about how all of this works,  she debriefs with her friend, over drinks at a bar.

Best Friend: How is it?

Ellen: It’s not as bad as I thought, but it does not pay very well. You get a

lot more if you have a line.

Dan: And suddenly, another patron in the bar leans into the conversation… Bar patron: Excuse me, did you say you get more money if you have a line?

Ellen: Yeah.

Bar patron: Got it.

Dan: And another patron. Bar patron: Just one line?

Ellen: Yeah.

You get more if you have more than five lines, too.

Bar patron: Wow. Wow.

Dan:Now it’s everybody in the bar.

Bar patrons: Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Dan: The bit about a pay bump is real, of course. Including the bump for more-than-five-lines. And just to expand on that for a minute here – Dru experienced the downside of that rule — ridiculously, painfully — when he did a one-shot appearance on Orange Is the New Black. It was a big meaty scene, but somehow wasn’t more than five lines.

Dru: I was a lawyer and every line was about a half of a page of just legalese

Dru as Lawyer: based on copious witness testimony, the U. S. attorney has charged you and four others

[DUCKS UNDER: with inciting the riot. They allege that you created and maintained a secret riot bunker, and there’s also evidence that directly implicates you in the kidnapping and false imprisonment of Officer Desmond Piscatella…]

Dan: However that’s how a “line” will get outlined on this scenario: So long as no one interrupts you, a monologue is only one line. A job with 5 strains or much less will get referred to as an “under-five”

Dru: And I used to be like, that is an beneath 5? I used to be like, okay, effectively, there we go. I’ll simply lecture for 2 pages.

Dru as Lawyer: I’ve negotiated a plea deal for you. For those who admit to the riot prices, they’re prepared to drop every little thing else. This is superb.

Dan: We’ve got nonetheless not gotten to the top of Dru’s first line on this scene Dru as Lawyer: It’ll garner you the shortest attainable sentence.

Dru as Lawyer: Do you perceive?

Dan: Again within the movie, the Ellen character remains to be freaking out when she exhibits up for a health care provider’s appointment.

Dr Receptionist: Has your insurance coverage modified?

Ellen: No, but it surely may quickly, so I needed to just remember to all would nonetheless take it.

Dr. Receptionist: Effectively, we take most insurances, so I’m certain we’ll be wonderful.

Ellen: Nice. Um, I used to be trying on the California Insurance coverage Alternate. Dr Receptionist: Uh, no.

Ellen: Excuse me?

Dr. Receptionist: No, we, we don’t take that.

Dan: And within the physician’s workplace– in one other echo of Ellen and Dru’s story– Ellen-the-character will get an ultrasound.

Ellen: Congratulations.

Dan: And he or she flashes again to the primary scene, together with her buddy…

Finest Pal: Couldn’t you solid your self in one thing?

Ellen: Like in what? My very own film? (echos) My very own film?

Dan: And naturally, that’s the place she decides. She’s gonna do that. On her approach out, she tells the receptionist…

Ellen: My insurance coverage will not be going to alter. You possibly can rely on it. 

Dr. Receptionist: Um, okay.

Dan: After I noticed the film, I didn’t know that Ellen Haun had been pregnant once they made it.

Dru: We by no means introduced it up in crowdfunding. However then once we had been making the film, we had been like, let’s simply use actual life. Not solely was it actual, it felt like the best method to clarify it.

Dan: They shot the film over three days in December 2022. Making this movie on $33,000 and alter was a feat by itself. They paid 15 actors, and a crew. There was a location to hire, and tools…

Ellen: You’ve obtained to pay for meals to feed your solid and crew. And particularly, you recognize, everyone seems to be sort of working a little bit bit beneath their charge so that you need to purchase them good meals.

Dan: You’ve heard among the outcomes. I received’t spoil the remaining. It’s a very-enjoyable 13 minutes. We’ll have a hyperlink wherever you’re listening to this. With the film wrapped by New Years, Ellen certified for her insurance coverage, so she was on it when their child Bruce was born just a few weeks early.

Ellen: We spent three weeks within the NICU and the whole time that we had been within the hospital with him, we simply stored saying, I’m so glad now we have insurance coverage. I’m so glad now we have insurance coverage. I’m so glad now we have insurance coverage.

Dan: Just some weeks after Bruce was born, Dru’s union– the Author’s Guild– went on strike. Then Ellen’s union went on strike too.

Ellen: We took Bruce to his very first picket when he was like two months previous. And I’ve been going, like, about, as soon as every week to, to picket with him. So all people is aware of him at 

the Disney Picket location. He’s a little bit union child.

Dru: We are saying the joke, he went straight from labor to labor motion.

Dan: No joke, although: the SAG strike meant there was much less work for actors in 2023– fewer possibilities to earn cash and qualify for insurance coverage. The well being plan prolonged a grace interval to maintain people from getting lower off, and a brand new regulation in California lets employees who’re on strike get sponsored insurance coverage from the state’s Obamacare change. In the meantime, Ellen managed to e-book one other business — solely TV exhibits and flicks had been focused by the strike, not adverts — so their household is about for subsequent yr too. 

It’s a contented ending … for now. 

However this looks like an exhausting merry-go-round to remain on for the remainder of your life. I requested Ellen and Dru how they felt about it.

Ellen: So one thing that has been good in regards to the strike has been speaking to a bunch of our mates about how laborious it’s gotten over the past a number of years to make a residing doing this.

I used to be like in my late twenties once I obtained the SAG medical health insurance for the primary time. I believed, like, “Nice.” Like, “that is it.”

Dan: That was virtually ten years in the past. However one way or the other getting constant work truly obtained more durable over time. And that felt private.

Ellen: It was like feeling, like, emotionally, like there’s one thing incorrect with me that I’m not making the sum of money that I made earlier in my profession. And so, actually, that has been a pleasant a part of the strike has been realizing that, hey, that is taking place to all of us. It’s not simply taking place to me. It’s actually laborious.

Dan: However it’s not simply laborious for actors and writers.

Dru: My brother works in tech. Proper. And like, I believe the character of employment, throughout many industries has modified. And like, there isn’t actually that very same job safety that there was when, like, my mother and father had been arising.

Dan: Dru thinks again to the time, years in the past, when he first give up his day job, to write down and carry out full-time. It was contact and go at first. Like, week to week, it might really feel precarious.

Dru: I had a sort of a down week and I used to be like, perhaps it’s time to get an actual day job like my brother. And proper that week, he obtained laid off. He’s discovered one other job, he’s figured it out, but it surely was that second the place I used to be like, oh, there’s no job which you could simply get and be like, now I’m set with medical health insurance. In order that’s a protracted reply to say, I don’t suppose we’re leaving the leisure trade anytime quickly.

Ellen: Yeah, we’ve sort of put all of our chips on the desk.

Dan: And like Dru stated: Fewer of us as of late have jobs the place we don’t have to fret about the place our medical health insurance is coming from, or if it’s gonna be any good. I imply, if extra of us had that sort of safety, I might actually by no means have began making this present. There could be no cause to make it. However in fact, 5 years in, I don’t count on to expire of fabric.

As we publish this episode, we’ve additionally simply put out an installment of our First Assist Equipment e-newsletter, this one sums up and updates all our greatest recommendation about find out how to decide the least-crappy medical health insurance for you.

I’ve realized loads in 5 years. And we’re capable of share what we’ve realized since you’ve been supporting us. And in case you can, that is the best possible second to pitch in, as a result of proper now, each greenback you give — as much as a thousand {dollars} per individual! — get matched. Because of NewsMatch from the Institute for Nonprofit Information, each greenback you give us counts for double. The place to go is arm and a leg present, dot com, slash assist. That’s https://armandalegshow.com/assist/.

We’ll be again in three weeks with half one in all an enormous investigative story we’ve been engaged on … just about all yr. Speak about studying a ton. It’s been a wild experience. We’ve been in a position to do this — and we’ll be capable of share the outcomes with you– due to your assist, and I’m super-thankful. I’ll go away you with that handle another time: arm and a leg present dot com, slash, assist. Thanks! I’ll catch you in three weeks. Until then, care for your self.

This episode of “An Arm and a Leg” was produced by Emily Pisacreta and me, Dan Weissman and edited by Ellen Weiss.

Daisy Rosario is our consulting managing producer. 

Adam Raymonda is our audio wizard. 

Our music is by Dave Winer and Blue Dot Classes.

Gabrielle Healy is our managing editor for viewers. She edits the First Assist Equipment Publication.

Bea Bosco is our consulting director of operations. 

Sarah Ballema is our operations supervisor.

“An Arm and a Leg” is produced in partnership with KFF Well being Information — previously generally known as Kaiser Well being Information. That’s a nationwide newsroom producing in-depth journalism about healthcare in America, and a core program at KFF — an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. You possibly can be taught extra about KFF Well being Information at: https://armandalegshow.com/about-x/partners-and-supporters/kaiserhealthnews/

Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Well being Information. He’s editorial liaison to this present.

Huge due to the Institute for Nonprofit Information for serving as our fiscal sponsor, permitting us to just accept tax-exempt donations. You possibly can be taught extra about INN at INN.org

And now for one in all my favourite components of the gig … giving a shout out to among the individuals who’ve come aboard to assist this present in the previous couple of weeks. Thanks at the moment to our supporters (Dan lists donors.) Thanks a lot! 

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KFF Well being Information and Public Highway Productions.

To communicate with “An Arm and a Leg,” subscribe to the e-newsletter. You can too comply with the present on Fb and X, previously generally known as Twitter. And in case you’ve obtained tales to inform in regards to the well being care system, the producers would love to listen to from you.

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