Ed Asner’s Discrimination Lawsuit Against SAG-AFTRA Health Plan Settled Posthumously
A lawsuit filed against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, which claimed that changes to eligibility for benefits “illegally discriminated” against older members, has been settled.
The suit was filed in federal court in December 2020 by former SAG president Ed Asner and nine other SAG-AFTRA members. The Health Plan, which had been facing staggering deficits, said that the changes were necessary to keep it from going broke.
Asner died in 2021, but a federal judge allowed the case to continue. Plaintiffs filed the action in December 2020, following the Plan’s August 2020 announcement of major changes to the benefit structure and eligibility requirements that, in effect, eliminated Plan health coverage for certain Plan participants age 65 and older and pushed them to Medicare coverage.
Plaintiffs claimed that breaches of fiduciary duties by the Plan’s trustees caused losses in Plan assets that led to the changes.
