Heather Matarazzo has spent decades working in Hollywood, but even a résumé that includes The Princess Diaries, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Scream 3 and Wednesday does not automatically guarantee continued union health coverage.
The 43-year-old actor revealed that she is struggling to meet the work requirements needed to maintain coverage through the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan. Matarazzo shared the admission while responding to actor Jack Haven, who had publicly asked for work after realizing they were short of the earnings needed to qualify for coverage next year.
“I am literally in the same boat right now,” Matarazzo wrote on Threads. “Lots of my fellow actors are.”
Why Matarazzo needs more work to keep coverage
The situation highlights a part of acting careers that audiences rarely see.
SAG-AFTRA members do not receive health coverage simply because they belong to the union or have worked successfully in the industry in the past. To qualify for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan’s Earned Eligibility, performers must reach a minimum amount of covered earnings during a four-quarter period or satisfy an alternative work-days requirement.
For 2026 benefit periods, the minimum covered-earnings requirement is $28,090. Beginning in 2027, that increases to $28,933. Actors can alternatively qualify by reaching at least 108 Eligibility Days under the plan’s rules.
Matarazzo did not reveal exactly how far she is from her own requirement.
Haven, known for Atypical and I Saw the TV Glow, had been more specific, saying they needed roughly another $4,000 in qualifying work before the deadline. After their public appeal, Haven said they received enough job offers to reach the required amount.
Matarazzo said she was happy to see Haven find a solution while noting that many other actors are facing similar circumstances.
A famous role does not mean steady employment
Matarazzo remains closely associated with Lilly Moscovitz, the outspoken best friend of Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis in 2001’s The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel.
But recognizability and regular employment are two very different things.
Her more recent credits include multiple episodes of Netflix’s Wednesday and the 2025 short film Paper Tiger. Even with decades of credits, however, performers must continue generating qualifying SAG-AFTRA-covered earnings within the relevant eligibility period.
That has become increasingly difficult for some working actors as television production has shifted toward shorter seasons. A performer who might once have booked 20-plus episodes of a network series can now appear in a streaming show consisting of six or eight episodes—and sometimes wait years for another season. People noted that this changing production model has made consistent qualifying work harder to secure for some actors.
Matarazzo’s post therefore gives a very different picture of what being a “working actor” can mean.
A performer can be recognizable, have credits stretching back decades and still face periods where there simply is not enough qualifying work.
Losing earned eligibility does not necessarily mean having no options
There is one important distinction in the headlines surrounding Matarazzo’s comments.
If a performer fails to meet the minimum earnings or alternative-days requirement, their earned SAG-AFTRA Health Plan coverage ends after the current benefit period. The plan says affected participants are then sent information about possible continuation options, including COBRA and, for qualifying long-term performers, Extended Career COBRA.
So Matarazzo is specifically talking about the risk of losing her current union-earned eligibility rather than saying she would necessarily have no possible health insurance whatsoever.
That distinction does not make her situation insignificant. COBRA coverage can be considerably more expensive than active-plan coverage, and securing enough union work remains necessary for performers who want to retain earned eligibility.
Matarazzo’s post is ultimately less surprising than it initially sounds.
Hollywood tends to make careers look permanent once an actor has appeared in a famous movie. The health-plan rules expose the reality underneath: past success does not count toward today’s eligibility requirement.
And as Matarazzo pointed out, she is far from the only actor confronting that problem.
