Several Hollywood actors, including Princess Diaries star Heather Matarazzo, are trying to raise awareness about new actor’s union requirements that could cause many performers to lose their healthcare benefits.
Matarazzo, whose last role was in the 2025 short film Paper Tiger, told fans on her social media that if she does not get a paying acting role soon, the new union rules will cause her to lose her health insurance, according to Variety.
She made her comment in reply to a similar post made by actor Jack Haven, who told fans that he is $4,000 short of reaching the annual $28,933 earning requirement to retain his SAG-AFTRA health insurance plan.
“I’m in a bit of an emergency situation,” Haven said in a YouTube video. “I need to make $4,000 by the end of the month in order to qualify for SAG health insurance starting in January.”
The most recent SAG-AFTRA union contract is not static at the $28,933 income level, either. According to the agreement, actors will find the annual earning total rise by $900 a year all the way to 2030, meaning that by then actors will have to earn $32,533 every year thereafter before being qualified to enroll in the union’s healthcare plan.
Union scale wages for speaking roles are currently as low as $256 a day for low-budget productions and $1,283 per day for productions carrying a $2 million budget or more.
The Welcome to the Dollhouse star echoed Haven’s distress, telling her fans, “I am literally in the same boat right now. Lots of my fellow actors are. I remember a time when we didn’t have to earn a minimum to qualify for insurance.”
Matarazzo, 43, had roles in the short film Paint and five episodes of the Netflix series Wednesday in 2025. She is also about to perform in the upcoming production Lore Harbour.
The union began a series of steps several years ago to change the plan “to address financial deficits facing the plan.”
But, according to Variety, that means about 90 percent of actors are no longer covered under the union’s healthcare plans.
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