Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP Partner Daniel H. Handman is quoted in the Los Angeles Times article titled, "A gold-plated healthcare plan lies at the center of a dispute between writers and major studios." The piece explores how healthcare costs and plan contributions serve as potential rationale for a strike by the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) protesting the entertainment production industry.
Commenting on the WGA health care plan, Handman noted, "It's a very unusual and generous plan." And, considering the trend of shorter TV seasons affecting writer compensation and, in turn, contributions to the group healthcare plan, Handman added, “As overall compensation for writers is going down, the contributions to the healthcare plan are going down because it is based on a percentage." (Employing studios contribute 9.5 percent of a writer’s WGA member's income, with a capped amount after an individual's salary reaches $250,000.)
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