Dawn Marie: Health care program for wrestlers 'very close'
When former WWE diva Dawn Marie Damatta started the Wrestlers Rescue foundation a year ago, one of her main goals was to establish a health care program for professional wrestlers -- past and present -- and their families.
That noble yet highly ambitious goal is very close to becoming a reality, Damatta said.
“I am within months of the first national health care program for professional wrestling,” Damatta told me in a telephone interview. “We just have a few little things to work out, but we’re very close. Two major companies are bidding for it right now.
"It’s going to change the industry in such a positive way," she added, her voice cracking with emotion. "I'm helping people that deserve to be helped."
The fact that pro wrestlers have never had health benefits or pensions is something that has been talked about in pro wrestling circles for years, but nothing had ever come of it. More attention was brought to the challenges facing wrestlers – especially as they get older – in the movie The Wrestler.
Anyone who has ever had a contract with WWE, WCW, ECW or TNA is eligible, as are wrestlers from the territories era. There most likely will be a separate policy for independent wrestlers, Damatta said.
“The application has to come through our doors and get approved. Once it comes across my desk, I will either approve or not approve whether this person was a person in our industry,” she said. “Once we approve that they are actually a member of our community, they are able to purchase health care, the same health care that any Fortune 500 company would have at the same rate.
“We will have family packages. We will have prescription and major medical. We will have different levels of packages depending on what you can afford, or we can do different types of co-pays like any insurance. We will have a disability package. In the real word, if you are disabled, you get disability. They way we’re getting our package put together, disability by definition means unable to work for a period of time. Because most people when they break their leg, they can still go to work and sit behind a desk. When we break our leg, we can’t go to work. So there will be compensation and a disability packet.
"With the health care, there’s no high-risk category; it’s normal category. The thing I think people don’t understand, is that when you work with a major [wrestling] company, we don’t have heath insurance. We don’t even have anything to purchase into with our own money. And if we do, we’re considered high risk and we can’t even afford it. Not only can we not afford it for ourselves, we can’t afford it for our families.”
To learn more about Wrestlers Rescue, go to wrestlersrescue.org.
Comments
This is a great thing she's doing. See, PRIVATE charity as opposed to government run health care or coercive unions (which is redundant). Although, i think she's overblowing the idea that wrestlers can't get health insurance.
Posted by: Rob Watkins | September 19, 2009 11:09 AM
I hope I don't come across as crude (because I do support Dawn Marie's efforts), but I hope the Health Care reform plan they're working on on Capitol hill renders this redundant.
Posted by: Alexander Case | September 19, 2009 11:56 AM
Sure Alexander,when pigs fly and hell freezes over.All this health care plan means is that I will end up paying three different health care premiums instead of the one I am currently paying,being disabled myself.
Posted by: Burt from Essex | September 19, 2009 3:11 PM
I wonder if wrestlers with same-sex partners/spouses can have them covered under the family insurance plan. I know homophobia in wrestling prevents this kind of discussion, but it's an important question.
Posted by: Stefan | September 20, 2009 3:40 AM
The Health insurance industry is 100 times worse than AIG, Bernie Madoff, and Citi combinerd. Why?
The average insurance CEO makes 11.9 million dollars per year......
and........
they have convinced a large portion of you out there to actually protest in SUPPORT of them.
What they're doing is criminal, what you're doing in supporting them is unconscionable.
That 600 bucks a night for a bed? that's them trying to gouge us to get money they can't get from the uninsured. So we're already paying for them. Lump 'em together as a corporation, let the companies bid for the business (leaving OUR insurance alone), watch how low the costs go. That shines a light on the rates they charge us, outcry (and the reduction in the uninsured) gets our rates DROPPED.
Posted by: BillVeik | September 20, 2009 5:23 PM
When a wrestler gets hurt while performing and needs an operation, are they required to pay for it out of their own pocket, or does Vince McMahon or Dixie Carter pick up the tab? I assume the Indy guys are on their own. Or, do individual promoters take out insurance before a show?
Posted by: Bob Buscaglia | September 21, 2009 2:19 AM
I think Dawn Marie is a complete liar as she used the first Wrestler Rescue's outing for her sister, NOT any wrestler and she totally lied and misled people about it.
Posted by: Scott | September 21, 2009 3:58 PM
Actually I went to that event and it was always that the show was for wrestlers AND her sister-in-law (not her sister). Since then the sister-in-law has her own thing and everything goes toward Wrestlers Rescue.
Posted by: Craig | September 24, 2009 7:20 PM
Dawn Marie is NOT what she seems.
I worked hard on her website and she recently let me go. Without warning. She is working "hard" to help those without insurance, yet she has labeled those that have helped her in recent weeks as "cancerous". It seems hypocritical.
She has used hard work of others to help get her where she is , and now she is acting like a saviour.
I don't trust her 1 bit
Posted by: Peter T | October 1, 2009 12:53 AM
The above comments are of opinion based only. Take them for what you will.
Posted by: Peter T | October 4, 2009 11:54 PM