The SAG-AFTRA Well being Plan will quickly add infertility therapy advantages to its protection, its board of trustees acknowledged on Saturday.
The 40-member board — equally comprised of representatives for administration and the performers’ union — unanimously accredited the change, which is able to take impact on Jan. 1, 2025. Beginning that yr, plan members and spouses who participate within the plan are certified for “medically mandatory” infertility therapy protection. The Plan has partnered with Carrot Fertility, a advantages platform and community of suppliers, to supply therapy and prescribed drugs at “no price share as much as the household lifetime most of $30,000” with Carrot suppliers, the announcement acknowledged.
Beginning in 2025, the profit will enable members and lined spouses who obtain a prognosis of infertility to entry a “care workforce” at Carrot and obtain lined remedies of IVF, IUI and prescription drug remedy, amongst different companies. Extra particulars will likely be out there in a doc that will likely be offered to members later in the summertime.
The Well being Plan beforehand offered infertility therapy protection previous to a discount in advantages that occurred in 2003, in line with a SAG-AFTRA Well being Plan spokesperson. Individuals have been asking for this protection since, and the trustees responded to these calls with the advantages addition.
With this addition to its protection, SAG-AFTRA joins the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension & Well being Plans and the Administrators Guild of America-Producer Pension & Well being Plan in offering infertility advantages. These two plans added infertility protection in 2022. (The Movement Image Business Pension & Well being Plans didn’t reply to The Hollywood Reporter‘s inquiries about whether or not it covers infertility remedies by press time.)
Nonetheless, in the end solely a small share of SAG-AFTRA union members will stand to profit. Earlier than the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, about 25,000 members within the union certified for canopy below the Well being Plan. (As of 2023, about 160,000 performers had been members, suggesting practically 16 % of the union was eligible earlier than the strike.) This yr, per the Plan’s eligibility standards, SAG-AFTRA members should earn at the least $27,000 or work 104 days in 4 consecutive quarters with a view to take part within the Well being Plan.