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“Drake & Josh” actor Drake Bell is putting SAG-AFTRA on blast after he revealed he does not qualify for health insurance.
On his Instagram Story on Tuesday, Bell posted a screenshot of the SAG-AFTRA health plan website
that says “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 says that Bell has earned $17,480.53 and that he needs $11,452.47 more to qualify by reaching the $28,933 required for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.
“Do not become an actor. Do not join SAG. You can work for 35 years and they still say [middle finger emoji],” Bell wrote on the screenshot. He then tagged SAG-AFTRA and its president, “Lord of the Rings” and “The Goonies” actor Sean Astin, in his scathing message.
“@SAGAFTRA really though @SeanAstin you’re doing a bang up job. How about stop using actors to run things maybe? They literally just know how to say words in front of a camera.”
Bell has recently turned to music and voice work after his acting career slowed down following Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh” series in the 2000s. In 2024, he came forward on the docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” and revealed that he’d been sexually abused as a teen by dialogue coach Brian Peck.
Bell is the latest celebrity to speak out about troubles obtaining SAG-AFTRA health insurance. “Atypical” actor Jack Haven and “Princess Diaries” star Heather Matarazzo both revealed last month that they wouldn’t qualify for health insurance if they didn’t get more work soon.
“I’m in a bit of an emergency situation,” Haven said in a YouTube video at the time. “I need to make $4,000 by the end of the month in order to qualify for SAG health insurance starting in January.” Haven later obtained enough work after reaching out publicly, and Matarazzo shared that she faced a similar situation.
“I am literally in the same boat right now. Lots of my fellow actors are,” she wrote. “I remember a time when we didn’t have to earn a minimum to qualify for insurance. Glad to see that Jack has gotten an offer that will let them to qualify for 2027.”
Variety has reached out to representatives for SAG-AFTRA and Bell for further comment.
