"Yeah, Moose, but there's already SAG-AFTRA, right?"
Well, yes but apparently there's a union now for voice actors that's more SPECIFIC to voice actors. But maybe it's not QUITE a union but more of a...club?
NAVA, The National Association of Voice Actors officially opened up membership the other day.
For about $120/year you can sign up and get access to education, pathways to work, health insurance and synthetic/AI protection? Interesting.
The REAL interesting part is that you can get health insurance, which, if you're a new full-time Voice Actor is pretty big. Now, I'm not sure what to think of the health insurance provider: Ease Health. But I'll be looking into them here soon.
I like it. If anything, it might make other organizations open their eyes to the growing field of voiceover work and it's participants. Anything that provides a 'safety in numbers' can only be good for all of us.
My only problem, and it's not necessarily a problem yet, is the 'Ease Healthcare.' I've never heard of 'em. Doesn't mean they're not any good, I just don't know anything about the company. I never heard of pralines until about 10 years ago and now I love 'em. Especially, the Caramel Praline Crunch ice cream (mmmm!) that isn't made anymore (dammit).
Will I join? Maybe. As of this writing I have an email out to NAVA asking them about both Ease and what the fee is after the introductory year of $120.
Check back here soon as I'll post an update.
UPDATE: Well that was quick!
HI Moose,
All the info and rates for the plans are on the healthcare page. Rates listed there are per month.
The $120 will be adjusted at the end of the year but I dont expect it to go up a lot. We want to keep the membership fees low.
Ease Health is a large company that has been around since 2014. There are currently 50k members of the plan that we are offering. I dont have any reviews off hand but I’ll reach out to our rep at the company and see if I can’t something for you.
Tim
