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Dan: Hey there. OK, this is one thing I by no means anticipated to say — I’ve bought a humorous, type of candy story about medical health insurance. OK, possibly candy and bitter. Here it’s …

As we document this, it’s November, which implies it’s open enrollment for plenty of folks — time to get subsequent 12 months’s medical health insurance discovered, each on the Obamacare exchanges and at a number of workplaces. A 12 months 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 inventive potential means … by crowdfunding a inventive venture. They posted a video in fact.

Ellen: Hi, 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 folk in that business get their insurance coverage via the unions. But provided that they’ve racked up sufficient wages for union work over a 12-month interval. They’d been on Ellen’s insurance coverage via the actors’ union, SAG. But final fall, as they defined of their crowdfunding video, that union insurance coverage wasn’t wanting like a positive factor for the approaching 12 months.

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

Ellen: And that brief movie is named “Ellen Needs Insurance.”

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

Ellen: Yes, we wish to forged you. We need you to have insurance coverage.

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

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

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

Dru: Yeah, this isn’t Shakespeare. This is a script we wrote. We’ll add elements.

Ellen: We can … We’ll make them up.

Dan: That was a 12 months in the past. And spoiler: They did make the movie. Of course now they want insurance coverage for 2024. And Ellen’s union spent plenty 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.]

This is “An Arm and a Leg” — a present about why well being care prices so freaking a lot, and what we will possibly 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 probably the most enraging, terrifying, miserable elements of American life, and produce 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 buddies with the bride and Drew was buddies with the groom. And on the bachelorette occasion, Emily had been, like, speaking about all the one 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 in all probability bought a girlfriend someplace.

Dru: Turns out I did not. And then, uh, we ended up, uh, beginning to date nearly 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 Internet and a recurring position as a regulation pupil on “How to Get Away with Murder.”

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

Ellen: The Fifth Amendment? 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. More 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 realize, 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 could have seen it. Even I’ve seen it … and I kinda by no means watch TV. Ellen performs BOTH elements in it. She’s name middle worker

Claire in Phoenix: This is Claire in Phoenix, can I show you how to?

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

Ellen as buyer: Yes.

Claire in Phoenix: Great.

Ellen as buyer: Correct.

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 dwell.

Ellen as buyer: Wait, you’re actual?

Claire in Phoenix: Yeah! With Discover Card, you’ll be able to discuss to an actual individual.

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

Ellen: And I type of knew behind my thoughts that like, okay, finally this holding charge goes to go away as a result of this business isn’t working anymore.

Dan: And then final June, she bought the decision.

Ellen: My agent was like, Hey, they’re releasing you from the holds. Uh, you’re not getting that cost. 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 assumed, okay, I’ve bought half the 12 months. Like that’s simply reserving like one different business.

Dan: But that wasn’t a positive factor. She’d carried out 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 properly.

Dan: $187 a day. More if there’s time beyond regulation, however nonetheless. It’s not that it’s not that a lot, particularly if you happen to’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 undoubtedly going to be right down to the wire. So that’s after I was like, you realize what, possibly we should always take into consideration making a film about this.

Dan: Actually, this was an concept that had type of been on Dru’s shelf for a number of years. As a comedy author for a TV discuss present, Dru had gotten his insurance coverage from the screenwriter’s union, the WGA. And then in 2018 the present bought canceled. Lucky for Drew, he was married to Ellen by then, in order that they put him on her SAG insurance coverage. And then after that saga had ended, he had a enjoyable concept.

Dru: I used to be like, oh, you realize what I ought to have carried out is I ought to have simply made an online collection referred to as, “Dru Needs Insurance.” And then I used to be like, properly, it’s too late. I assume that’s an concept that I’m by no means going to must do. And then flash ahead.

Dan: They’re in the identical boat! over again.

Except now, it’s Ellen who’s brief, and nothing to fall again on. I requested in the event that they remembered the day after 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, properly, 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 type of going like, okay, our life’s gonna change.

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

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

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

Dan: So they did! They banged out a script — and introduced a good friend’s manufacturing firm on board. (The union doesn’t allow you to simply pay your self immediately.) Which brings us to the purpose within the story after 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: Things like begging my agent for a job, praying to the gods for a shock residual test, and even background work.

Also, 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: But that’s how a “line” will get outlined on this scenario: As lengthy as no person interrupts you, a monologue is only one line. A job with 5 traces or much less will get referred to as an “under-five”

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

Dru as Lawyer: I’ve negotiated a plea deal for you. If you admit to the riot prices, they’re prepared to drop all the pieces else. This is superb.

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

Dru as Lawyer: Do you perceive?

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

Dr Receptionist: Has your insurance coverage modified?

Ellen: No, however it would possibly quickly, so I needed to just remember to all would nonetheless take it.

Dr. Receptionist: Well, we take most insurances, so I’m positive we’ll be superb.

Ellen: Great. Um, I used to be wanting on the California Insurance Exchange. 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 she flashes again to the primary scene, along with her good friend…

Best Friend: Couldn’t you forged your self in one thing?

Ellen: Like in what? My personal film? (echos) My personal film?

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

Ellen: My insurance coverage will not be going to vary. You can depend on it.

Dr. Receptionist: Um, okay.

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

Dru: We by no means introduced it up in crowdfunding. But 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 simplest technique 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 gear…

Ellen: You’ve bought to pay for meals to feed your forged and crew. And particularly, you realize, everyone seems to be type of working a little bit bit underneath their charge so that you wish to purchase them good meals.

Dan: You’ve heard a few of the outcomes. I gained’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 a number of weeks early.

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

Dan: Just a number of weeks after Bruce was born, Dru’s union– the Writer’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 per 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 say 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 probabilities to earn cash and qualify for insurance coverage. The well being plan prolonged a grace interval to maintain of us from getting reduce off, and a brand new regulation in California lets staff who’re on strike get sponsored insurance coverage from the state’s Obamacare trade. Meanwhile, Ellen managed to e book one other business — solely TV reveals and flicks had been focused by the strike, not adverts — so their household is ready for subsequent 12 months too.

It’s a contented ending … for now.

But 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 buddies 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 after I bought the SAG medical health insurance for the primary time. I assumed, like, “Great.” Like, “this is it.”

Dan: That was nearly ten years in the past. But someway getting constant work truly bought tougher over time. And that felt private.

Ellen: It was like feeling, like, emotionally, like there’s one thing improper with me that I’m not making the amount of cash that I made earlier in my profession. And so, truthfully, 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: But it’s not simply laborious for actors and writers.

Dru: My brother works in tech. Right. 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 developing.

Dan: Dru thinks again to the time, years in the past, when he first stop 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 type of a down week and I used to be like, possibly it’s time to get an actual day job like my brother. And proper that week, he bought laid off. He’s discovered one other job, he’s figured it out, however it was that second the place I used to be like, oh, there’s no job that you could simply get and be like, now I’m set with medical health insurance. So that’s a protracted reply to say, I don’t assume we’re leaving the leisure business anytime quickly.

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

Dan: And like Dru stated: Fewer of us nowadays have jobs the place we do not 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 type of safety, I might actually by no means have began making this present. There can be no purpose to make it. But 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 Aid Kit e-newsletter, this one sums up and updates all our greatest recommendation about how you can decide the least-crappy medical health insurance for you.

I’ve realized loads in 5 years. And we’re in a position to share what we’ve realized since you’ve been supporting us. And if you happen to 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. Thanks to NewsMatch from the Institute for Nonprofit News, 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/support/.

We’ll be again in three weeks with half one in all an enormous investigative story we’ve been engaged on … just about all 12 months. Talk about studying a ton. It’s been a wild journey. We’ve been in a position to try 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 tackle yet one more time: arm and a leg present dot com, slash, assist. Thanks! I’ll catch you in three weeks. Till then, handle 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 Sessions.

Gabrielle Healy is our managing editor for viewers. She edits the First Aid Kit Newsletter.

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 Health News — formerly known as Kaiser Health News. That’s a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism about healthcare in America, and a core program at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. You can learn more about KFF Health News at: https://armandalegshow.com/about-x/partners-and-supporters/kaiserhealthnews/

Zach Dyer is senior audio producer at KFF Health News. He is editorial liaison to this present.

Big due to the Institute for Nonprofit News for serving as our fiscal sponsor, permitting us to simply accept tax-exempt donations. You can study extra about INN at INN.org

And now for one in all my favourite elements of the gig … giving a shout out to a few of 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.) Thank you a lot!