Amid the industry consolidation and lack of work in Hollywood, actors are speaking up about needing help to qualify for SAG-AFTRA’s health insurance plan this year.
Cheyenne Jackson, known for his onscreen roles in several seasons of American Horror Story, 30 Rock and Glee, launched the movement Monday morning on his Instagram to highlight actors in need of one more or a few more gigs to meet the SAG-AFTRA minimum of $28,000 in annual earnings to get health insurance. Within 24 hours, he said he “received hundreds and hundreds” of DMs from actors asking to be featured, with some highlighting only being a few hundred dollars short or a few thousand, and others pointing to an almost barren job landscape.
“This is systematic. This is like across the whole swath of SAG actors working right now,” Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is what’s happening. People that have been leads of television shows have worked for years and years and years, and you know their faces, and you know their work. This year, they’re like, ‘What am I gonna do?’”
Jackson said he was inspired to launch the project, One Job Away, after reflecting on his experience in 2025. That year, for the first time in more than 20 years in the industry, he found himself $6,000 short of meeting the eligibility criteria for the insurance that covers himself, his husband and their twins. Facing the deadline, he called Kathy Bates, who he had previously worked with, and she arranged for him to get four speaking lines on her show, Matlock, to meet the eligibility criteria.
Jackson also pointed to Angela Lansbury, who also helped hire older actors who were short on their insurance to be guest stars on Murder She Wrote, as inspiration for the project. His goal, in posting the headshots and bios of the actors, is to have casting directors or other famous names give them the same leg-up he received.
While many actors have struggled to qualify for health insurance in the past, the sharp drop-off of scripted television series orders and the rise of runaway production amid industry consolidation and cost-cutting in recent years is cumulatively weighing on performers. Actors on the SAG-AFTRA plan have four different quarterly deadlines to qualify for the $28,000 in earnings, depending on the point at which they joined the union.
And amid rampant healthcare inflation, qualifying isn’t about to get any easier. Starting Jan. 1, quarterly eligibility premiums will rise, as will the earnings threshold by one percent, with more one percent bumps coming in the years after. That’s the result of terms negotiated in the union’s latest contract with studios and streamers.
This year, Jackson, who also has a stage career, said he “squeaked by” himself and was able to meet the minimum thanks to a couple of gigs, including acting in a microdrama for the first time and doing a commercial.
“What’s baffling is I’ve been on over 40 TV shows, and so I make OK money on residuals. Not great, but OK. But that money doesn’t go necessarily towards your insurance. So it’s tough,” he said. “You can have a really good year. You can make $350,000 a year acting, and then the next year it’s lean, but sadly that that money from before doesn’t necessarily carry over and help you to the next year. So I don’t know. I just think some conversations need to be had, and I think probably now is the time because there’s a lot of discussion right now around SAG and everything that’s going on.”
Bayne Gibby was one of the actors highlighted on Instagram Monday. Gibby, who describes herself as a middle-class actor has been in the industry for 30 years, including appearances as Gigi in The Comeback and recently in the final season of Hacks, where she gifts Deborah Vance’s character seed art. Despite the latter appearance, and what had been a steady stream of work, Gibby said she has only been able to work one day this year, making it her “worst financial year ever.”
“I’ve been on a couple HBO series that have been Emmy winning, and I’ve done a lot of commercials, and I’ve done a couple features. To then sort of go to a place where you’re not sure you’re going to be able to pay your bills, and you could possibly use your health insurance is like a real kick in the crotch, and it’s very scary,” she continued.
In addition to the industry consolidation, Gibby also points to the traumatic events of the last several years, all of which have put a damper on work. Among these, was the SAG-AFTRA strike, which Gibby said she and others are currently questioning the efficacy of, given the lack of opportunities that are currently in the industry and the sacrifice they made with not working several months in 2023.
“There was a saying in the industry: “Stay alive till ’25,” and that everybody felt like in January of 2025 we were going to kind of come back from the strikes in ‘23, and then in January of 2025 we had the fires and that set everything back,” Gibby said. “That felt like almost the final blow after the pandemic, and then the strikes, and then the fires. It just felt like every time we thought we might get onto smoother waters, the hits just kept coming.”
“When we went on strike in 2023, I think people were all in because they really thought we’re going to make this sacrifice in the short term for some greater benefit in the longer term, and I think the way a lot of my peers are feeling now is why did we strike? Why did we do that huge sacrifice? Because things have not gotten better,” she added.
She still has several months to qualify for insurance, and does not plan to leave the industry, but said it’s a conversation that has increasingly crept up amongst fellow actors.
Both Jackson and Gibby noted that there has been somewhat of a stigma around admitting the need to get more work in order to qualify for health insurance, even as Gibby says it had been previously talked about “in hushed tones” while waiting for auditions. The project is also meant to combat that.
Since launching on Instagram, Jackson said he has received support from friends Sarah Paulson and Jamie Lee Curtis, who are reposting actors’ bios and photos. He also notes that he’s since heard from others on Instagram asking for a similar campaign for directors and for hair and makeup artists.
“There’s definitely a need to highlight each other, and what I really want to do is kind of just take the stigma out of it because I don’t think there’s any shame in talking about that you’re short,” Jackson said. “And I do feel that from folks, ‘They’re just like, “Oh God, I don’t want to seem like I’m desolate and can’t get it together. But it’s just what’s happening. So be vulnerable. Put yourself out there.”
Katie Kilkenny contributed to this rpeort.
