Shannen Doherty publicly asks Fran Drescher to help “do better” with actors’ healthcare
Beverly Hills, 90210 actor Shannen Doherty, who has been battling cancer since 2015, asks SAG President Fran Drescher for assistance
Aux News Actors
Though she initially kept her 2015 breast cancer diagnosis quiet on the set of the Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot, Shannen Doherty has been outspoken about her struggle with the disease. After going into remission in 2017, she announced in 2020 that her cancer had returned and advanced to stage four. Now, the Heathers actor is opening up about her health again—and asking SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher for help with insurance.
“im curious for people like me who have worked since they were 10 and paid dues to @sagaftra how when we aren’t able to work for health reasons why our union abandons us,” Doherty writes on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself ready for treatment and tagging Drescher. “I think we can do better for all our members and I think you’re [the] person to do it. Health insurance shouldn’t be based on annual income. It’s a lifetime contribution. And for me and many others, we have paid a lifetime of dues to only be canceled because we don’t meet your current criteria. Not ok.”
It should be interesting to see if Drescher responds, given her current track record on health issues. Last year, the former The Nanny star made headlines for her statements about ending vaccine protocols on sets. Drescher alluded to this view again when she took the stage at the SAG Awards last month.
This isn’t the first time SAG-AFTRA’s insurance system has come into question in recent months. After Angela Lansbury’s death in October 2022, the Murder, She Wrote star was hailed online for helping aging actors who were no longer consistently working maintain their SAG insurance by getting them roles on the long-running crime series.
Additionally, Oscar nominee Ke Huy Quan has been open about losing his health insurance after filming Everything Everywhere All At Once, the one-time child actor’s biggest role in years. In a recent interview on The Late Late Show, he recalls telling his agent, “Can you please get me anything? It doesn’t matter, I just need one job to make the minimum requirement so I can qualify for health insurance the following year.” As the multiverse adventure had yet to reinvigorate his career and the pandemic had paused most productions, Quan lost his status with SAG.
14 Comments
Of course, why health insurance is tied to employment…
Because it makes sense and that’s why every country does it this way.Wait, I’m being told that only this country does it this way.
America be like:
Otherwise lazy bums would be hogging all the chemo.
Because everyone knows it’s easy to keep working when you are very sick or seriously injured.
Yeah my husband works for one of the industry guilds and he says this has long been a complaint from women who just can’t work long, grueling hours on set when they’re pregnant but who need their health insurance more than ever when they’re pregnant. Glad this issue is getting coverage!
It’s actually a quirk leftover from World War II. After years of the Great Depression, the labor market suddenly got VERY tight; that tends to happen with mass conscription combined with all the military manufacturing. Anyway, the Roosevelt Administration desperately wanted to prevent any possibility of labor action, but they also wanted to avoid large-scale inflation. Essentially, a deal was struck in 1942. Instead of raising wages, which would increase take home pay at the same time that there wasn’t much for people to buy with it, companies would start providing some additional non-cash benefits. Medical insurance was one of these benefits. In fact, wages themselves were frozen, and companies competed for labor by offering benefits.Additionally, in 1943, those health insurance benefits were made exempt from taxation.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.htmlPS – Germany actually has employer-provided private insurance, but also has a public system, and everyone is *required* to have one or the other. Note that even the public plan has contributions paid by both the employers and employees. https://www.germany-visa.org/insurances-germany/health-insurance/
Because Obama and Pelosi are shitty capitalist liberals.
So much I learned in this:
1) The Nanny is the SAG president
2) Doherty is still alive
3) The Nanny is still alive
4) Fuck it. I’d watch Murder She Wrote again. Let’s see, apparently, Lansbury was 59 when that show premiered. Let’s see, who was born in 1964….
Courtney Cox, Sandra Bullock, Famke Janssen, Bridget Fonda, and Janeane Garafolo are all the same age as Lansbury when that show started.
5) I need to fucking lay down now
The Characters/actors in the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot are as old as the Golden Girls were back in the ‘80s.
There is something wrong with the implication that being physically incapable of work means you don’t deserve the care that would keep you alive.
Yes, but it isn’t an implication. There are plenty of people who will say this righ to your face. Of course, they’re all employed and a good many of them despise their jobs which is only more fuel for their spiteful fires.
Healthcare is paid for with taxes. Who are the people who aren’t paying a lot of taxes but aren’t? That’s right, the people who have the lobby power in this country. This is exactly the way that they want it. Taxpayers are providing health insurance for most of Walmart’s employees, people hired by the Waltons, one of the richest families in the country. Our health needs aren’t even decided by our doctors. Until we get national healthcare we will continue to slave at jobs overseen by sociopaths and those who can’t find work will die. Welcome to our shitty past.
That’s actually pretty fucked up. You can have health insurance, as long as you don’t actually need health insurance.