The President of the Actor’s Guild of Nigeria, Emeka Rollas, has hinged the association’s introduction of health insurance to actors on the need to address the recurring situation where thespians with life-threatening ailments turn to social media to solicit funds for treatment.
In an exclusive chat with THE WHISTLER, Rollas advised its members who wouldn’t want to get sick and beg for money in the future to sign up for their health management scheme.
According to Rollas , the guild could not force the HMO (health maintenance organization) on the actors who chose to opt out but noted that the AGN will not pay the medical bill of such actors when they’re ill and unable to foot their bills.
Emeka Rollas said;
“We have Health Management Scheme but then the HMO (health maintenance organization) is not something you enforce on somebody, it’s a scheme you initiate and put up, any member who doesn’t want to get sick and beg money in the future can sign up for the scheme, and where a member doesn’t sign for it, they are on their own when anything happens because our association doesn’t pay for actors.
“It’s not like normal organizations where you receive salary and it’s deducted from it, here we are not the ones that pay our actors.
“So, it’s optional for an actor to sign up to HMO, and whoever that didn’t sign up, whatever comes to you, you have to take care of yourself,”