Even James Van Der Beek Couldn't Afford Cancer Care

Celebrities, they're just like us.

Van Der Beek in a promo for Don’t Trust the B- In Apartment 23, cruelly canceled after two seasons.

This week, there shall be a Viking funeral for Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek, who passed away yesterday after having been diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2023. Okay, probably not. But there was once a Viking funeral for James Van Der Beek on an episode of Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, although it actually ended up being a Viking funeral for all of his old Dawson’s Creek memorabilia.

Of course, that wasn’t real life. In real life, as it turns out, Van Der Beek and his wife actually had to sell a lot of that memorabilia in order to pay for his cancer treatments for the last several years. In real life, some family friends started a GoFundMe for his wife and six children because his care for the last several years depleted their funds.

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Via GoFundMe:

In the wake of this loss, Kimberly and the children are facing an uncertain future. The costs of James’s medical care and the extended fight against cancer have left the family out of funds. They are working hard to stay in their home and to ensure the children can continue their education and maintain some stability during this incredibly difficult time. The support of friends, family, and the wider community will make a world of difference as they navigate the road ahead.

Your generosity will help cover essential living expenses, pay bills, and support the children’s education. Every donation, no matter the size, will help Kimberly and her family find hope and security as they rebuild their lives. Thank you for considering a gift to support them.

So far, the page has raised $2.1 million for his family, which sounds like a lot but maybe isn’t when you consider that we’re talking about six kids here.

In practically any other country, they would be fine. In the EU, his treatment for the last 2-3 years would have cost them under $100,000 — still expensive, but certainly manageable for a family of means. In the United States, however, even a celebrity can’t afford that shit.

What are we doing here?

More than 250,000 GoFundMe campaigns meant to raise money for medical needs are created in the United States every year, and have been seen for over a decade as something like an ad-hoc safety net to replace the one we don’t have. Unfortunately, as one study discovered, this doesn’t actually work out very well for most people.

Via National Institutes Health:

Of the campaigns in the “medical, illness, and healing” category on GoFundMe in 2016 to 2020, 437 596 met sampling criteria. These campaigns raised more than $2 billion from 21.7 million donations, toward a collective goal of more than $8.45 billion. As shown in Table 1, median campaign earnings were small, raising $1970 toward a $8000 goal, from 24 donors. Variation between successful and unsuccessful campaigns was vast: the top campaign raised $2.4 million from more than 70 000 donors, while 16.1% of campaigns were entirely unfunded, raising $0. Half of campaigns reached 25% of their goal; a third reached 50% of their goal; a fifth reached 75% of their goal; and less than 12% fully reached their goal.

That $1970 number is even more depressing when you consider that a GiveSendGo campaign for that lady who got fired from Cinnabon for being racist raised $149,000.

This is not a very good way to do things, especially when you consider the factors that are more likely to create a successful campaign — being a celebrity, being an especially cute kid, knowing a lot of people who have money, social media clout, being able to get publicity for one’s cause.

Conservatives, especially those with a libertarian bent, like to tout the idea of charity and philanthropy being superior to tax collection when it comes to providing a social safety net — frequently insisting that if the government just didn’t take money from people, they would be more inclined to give it. The crowdfunding model is a shining example of how very stupid and inefficient this idea is.

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I hope that Van Der Beek’s family is okay, but I also wish they didn’t have to do this. We know there are better, less expensive ways of doing this, and even though there are a whole lot of shitty people in this country, I actually don’t think a majority of people in this country think that medical care should be so costly that families that just lost a parent should have to worry about losing their home due to having to pay for medical expenses. It’s not right.

If the system doesn’t work for celebrities, how the hell do we expect it to work for the rest of us?

PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!

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