Cheyenne Jackson Launches 'One Job Away' to Save Actors' Health Insurance

Cheyenne Jackson, an actor with credits in more than 40 television series, came within one job of losing his SAG-AFTRA health insurance last year. The threshold: roughly $28,000 in qualifying annual earnings. He missed it — until a five-minute phone call to Kathy Bates fixed the problem with a five-line, nameless role on "Matlock."

The insurance covers Jackson, his husband Jason and their two children. "I was one gig short of getting my insurance," Jackson said. "We really rely on the SAG insurance. It's really good."

He needed $6,000. He called his friend, the "Matlock" star. "I called her, and I was like, 'Listen, I'm in trouble and I could really use your help. Is there anything I could do on "Matlock"?'" Jackson recalls. "She's like, 'Give me a second. Just give me a minute.'"

Bates called back in under five minutes. "She's like, 'I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is, I got you a role on "Matlock." The bad news is, you have five lines and you don't have a name,'" Jackson says. "I was like, 'Sign me up! No ego amigo here.' I played no-name detective. I searched a crime scene and I said, 'Hey, Sergeant, we got some blood over here.'"

What is 'One Job Away'?

Jackson is now paying the favor forward. He launched the "One Job Away" initiative, posting headshots and bios of actors on the verge of losing their SAG-AFTRA coverage to his Instagram feed, which counts 741,000 followers.

The response was immediate. Jackson says he received "hundreds" of submissions in less than 24 hours. He has posted 22 headshots so far, including:

• Juston Graber, who is $198.48 shy of qualifying
• Miho Saito, short $402
• Independent Spirit Award nominee Trace Lysette
• Jai Rodriguez, original star of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
• Daniel Franzese of "Mean Girls"

Jamie Lee Curtis has reposted some of the campaign posts to her 6.7 million Instagram followers, extending the campaign's reach well beyond Jackson's own audience.

Why the system resets every year

The campaign's core complaint is structural. Jackson says the bigger problem lies in how residuals and SAG-AFTRA eligibility work together.

"The bigger conversation is just the way that residuals and SAG are set up," Jackson says. "I make OK money on residuals, but a lot of that residual does not go toward your SAG dues. You're essentially starting over every year."

The arithmetic is unforgiving. "An actor can make $500,000 one year, but when they don't make much the next year, the $500,000 doesn't help with the following year's health insurance minimum," he says.

The squeeze reaches well beyond working journeymen. "Journeyman actors and major people who have been the leads of several shows and who have been around for years and years, all of a sudden are, because there are so many fewer jobs and the pay is so much lower, now scrambling for one little guest spot to try to keep their insurance," Jackson says.

What does this change for SAG-AFTRA members?

Not the rules — not yet. Jackson is careful to frame "One Job Away" as a conversation-starter rather than an attack on union leadership. "I don't want to play a blame game," he says. "What I do want to do is start engaging in a bigger conversation because clearly the system is not working right now."

The pressure is nonetheless mounting on the union from other quarters. "Drake & Josh" actor Drake Bell publicly blasted SAG-AFTRA after learning he did not qualify for its insurance.

On his Instagram Story on Oct. 13, Bell posted a screenshot of the SAG-AFTRA health plan website stating: "You do not qualify for Health Plan coverage at this time. Your reported covered earnings from July 2025-June 2026 did not meet minimum eligibility requirements, or you did not qualify other eligibility rules."

The webpage shows Bell has earned $17,480.53 and needs $11,452.47 more to reach the $28,933 required for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan. Bell wrote over the screenshot: "Do not become an actor. Do not join SAG. You can work for 35 years and they still say [middle finger emoji]."

Bell is not an isolated case. In September, "Atypical" actor Jack Haven and "Princess Diaries" star Heather Matarazzo both revealed they would not qualify for health insurance unless they secured more work soon.

A stopgap, not a solution

"One Job Away" can connect individual actors with individual gigs, and Jackson's feed has already begun doing that at speed. But the campaign addresses symptoms, not the annual earnings floor that caused them — and Jackson himself concedes the system "is not working right now." Whether a union response follows, or the campaign simply becomes a rolling bulletin board of near-misses, will depend on how hard the conversation he says he wants actually lands inside SAG-AFTRA.