PGA Announces Initiative to Fund Health Insurance for Producers
At the 35th annual PGA Awards on Sunday, the Producers Guild of America announced an initiative aimed at ensuring health insurance benefits for every qualified producer working full-time in the film and TV industry.
“Producers, unlike unionized creative professionals in the industry, lack guaranteed health insurance benefits. No one should go without these essential benefits. Producing is challenging enough without the added anxiety of wondering how you are going to obtain health coverage for you and your family,” PGA presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said in a statement.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
The guild is asking that all production companies, including studios and streamers, provide health benefits for qualified producers with credits recognized by the PGA who are working full-time on their eligible projects by (1) making contributions through the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan for eligible producers on qualifying productions; and (2) for all other producers who can’t access benefits through an existing industry plan or union contract, including a direct payment line item in their production budgets for producers to purchase their own health insurance.
Blumhouse, Legendary, MACRO and Berlanti Productions are the first to sign on to this initiative, having pledged to include in their production budgets health insurance contributions in support of eligible producers through the MPI’s Health Plan and, for full-time producers ineligible for insurance through MPI or a union agreement, a direct contribution to producers so that they may purchase health insurance on the open market. PGA has suggested that production companies offering a production budget line item contribution commit to budgeting at least $3.33 an hour per producer for eligible full-time producers to be used toward the purchase of a health insurance plan.
“Producers are the only group of creative professionals without a union on set, so we have to look out for each other. Taking care of our own is good business, good for families and good for our industry, and I’m proud to be part of the group leading this initiative,” Blumhouse’s Jason Blum said in a statement.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
