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Original poster

To think the most shocking thing about James VDB's death is...

257 replies

Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 08:39

...that a famous actor, recognised worldwide for his role in Dawson's Creek (putting this in the first lines for the benefit of MNetters who love to comment 'who??' on these threads) struggled to pay for his cancer treatment? His death has left his family 'out of funds'.

Now, James Van der Beek had enough fame and affection from fans that a Go Fund Me has raised a lot to support his family already. But there must be countless families across America who are ruined by medical bills - if Dawson couldn't pay for his cancer treatment, how do non-famous people in ordinary jobs cope? What do their families do after they've been crippled by the costs and still lose their loved one along with their homes and security for their children?

As a millennial, I was so sad to read of James' death. I loved Dawson's Creek. But it makes me very afraid for a future where Farage gets his hands on the NHS and we find ourselves in this position too. I have plenty of bad experiences with our healthcare system and am not saying it's perfect. But if I or my husband are diagnosed with cancer tomorrow, we won't have to sell our possessions or ask friends and family for money or risk leaving our kids with no home after treatment costs. There are plenty of wealthy people out there eager to take the NHS apart and sell it off, and for all people say we'd get a European system and it would be improved, it seems far more likely that capitalist greed will win out and we'll actually get an American model.

James Van der Beek's death highlights just how ruinous that model is. He spent his illness selling off memorabilia and trying to raise money. He died knowing his family's finances were left decimated. And he was someone with more resources than most. It's a sobering indictment of how bad things can get, and I am truly afraid that a Reform government would put us all in that dystopian scenario.

There are all kinds of options I could put for a poll but I'm just trying to make it really simple.

YABU - US healthcare is fine
YANBU - US healthcare is a terrifying prospect

OP posts:
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Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 20:15

EsmaCannonball · 12/02/2026 20:05

I have two thoughts on this:

  1. the US health insurance system leads to terrifying inequalities and hardships when people are at their most vulnerable (and is the prime reason I do not want a Reform government here). Employers are given too much power and people have to keep on working through serious illness and old age just to ensure a decent level of treatment.

  2. famous people or their relatives using JustGiving-type charity fundraising makes me profoundly uncomfortable and just feels wrong. It's another type of societal unfairness. Charity should go the most needy, not to the least embarrassed to ask or most high-profile, media savvy and photogenic. Celebrities buying expensive health treatments beyond the reach of ordinary people and then asking the public to ensure their families can maintain the same lifestyle just doesn't sit right. Charity flowing upwards from the poor to the rich is all kinds of wrong. There will be people suffering simultaneous grief and sudden poverty who will never have the platform to be given hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I don't disagree with you. The Van der Beeks have a lot of celebrity friends though and I would imagine that they're donating. I wouldn't personally donate to something like that and no one who can't afford it has to. Normal, non-famous people set up Go Fund Mes to pay medical bills; it seems like a very common thing to do and I think extremely normalised in a country where people are put in such dire straits from paying for healthcare.

OP posts:
NooNooHead · 12/02/2026 20:15

minipie · 12/02/2026 13:47

Farage is never going to have enough electoral support to win a majority in Parliament.

That’s what many people thought about Brexit - voters couldn’t be so stupid as to vote for something barely thought through and with lots of potential pitfalls, based only on a few unbelievable promises and a dash of jingoism.

Turns out yes the voters can be that stupid.

Absolutely this. My DH has a colleague who always says (in response to the Brexit vote): "Never underestimate the power of stupid people..."

It follows that it could happen again with Farage but I truly hope it doesn't.

AgentJohnson · 12/02/2026 20:08

Cancer treatment in the US is hideously expensive. James v/d Beek was diagnosed three years ago, I can easily see how three years of treatment would have decimated his family’s finances. In the US, healthcare debt is a thing, leading to homelessness, bankruptcy and suicide.

@LesserSootyOwl What European model would that be? You do know that Europe is not a country and every member state has their own healthcare system. I’m tired of people lazily pointing to a ‘model’ they clearly know very little of.

BruFord · 12/02/2026 20:05

Fibrous · 12/02/2026 19:54

My close friend died of bowel cancer aged 39 a few years ago. She had good nhs treatment at the Christie in Manchester but there were still many lines of treatment unavailable to her unless she paid. She was a single mother so couldn’t/wouldn’t cash in to pay for those, which would buy her time but not cure her.

Edited

@Fibrous Your poor friend and her children. 💐 That’s exactly the position our friend is in- he’s had all the conventional treatments and is trying an experimental one to extend his life. I really doubt that he’d get his current treatment on the NHS, he’d have to go private.

EsmaCannonball · 12/02/2026 20:05

I have two thoughts on this:

  1. the US health insurance system leads to terrifying inequalities and hardships when people are at their most vulnerable (and is the prime reason I do not want a Reform government here). Employers are given too much power and people have to keep on working through serious illness and old age just to ensure a decent level of treatment.

  2. famous people or their relatives using JustGiving-type charity fundraising makes me profoundly uncomfortable and just feels wrong. It's another type of societal unfairness. Charity should go the most needy, not to the least embarrassed to ask or most high-profile, media savvy and photogenic. Celebrities buying expensive health treatments beyond the reach of ordinary people and then asking the public to ensure their families can maintain the same lifestyle just doesn't sit right. Charity flowing upwards from the poor to the rich is all kinds of wrong. There will be people suffering simultaneous grief and sudden poverty who will never have the platform to be given hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fibrous · 12/02/2026 19:54

My close friend died of bowel cancer aged 39 a few years ago. She had good nhs treatment at the Christie in Manchester but there were still many lines of treatment unavailable to her unless she paid. She was a single mother so couldn’t/wouldn’t cash in to pay for those, which would buy her time but not cure her.

Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 19:50

berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 19:33

That's why I said "I'm guessing'. But I think that's probably what happened, if you think it about it logically from the perspective of someone who had a huge asset, didn't work much and had to support himself and seven others.

Also, most people don't earn millions of dollars in the period of five or so years.

Show quote history

I don't think there's anything logically compelling in that hypothetical scenario. People have speculated all kinds of things about what he did or didn't earn on Dawson's Creek, how much he worked, what money he made and how he spent it but none of us know any of the many variables. And if someone discredits James VDB on the basis that they think he was feckless, it doesn't detract from the shitshow that is American healthcare and the disaster it wreaks on families and individuals all the time.

It's a really comforting delusion of the right wing to imagine that catastrophe only comes to those who deserve it by not being virtuous or sensible or responsible enough and therefore there is no need for a safety net to exist. But the truth is that ill health, disease and disability can come to any one of us out of a clear blue sky. Health insurance companies are ruthless and venal, and American people suffer the consequences every day. It's a brutal and inhumane system.

OP posts:
berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 19:33

Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 19:16

You have no way of knowing that and it is pretty common for people in America to start Go Fund Mes in the face of crippling medical bills.

Show quote history

That's why I said "I'm guessing'. But I think that's probably what happened, if you think it about it logically from the perspective of someone who had a huge asset, didn't work much and had to support himself and seven others.

Also, most people don't earn millions of dollars in the period of five or so years.

Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 19:16

berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 19:11

I agree. He made millions in his lifetime and I'm guessing he sold the Beverly Hills house in the summer of 2020 after not working for months during he pandemic, and lived off the proceeds for a few years (not a huge amount which wouldn't have gone far with six kids to support and a house to rent). If I'm wrong, then it's appalling that the Go Fund crowdfunder started.

Show quote history

You have no way of knowing that and it is pretty common for people in America to start Go Fund Mes in the face of crippling medical bills.

OP posts:
berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 19:11

Swiftie1878 · 12/02/2026 18:03

I don’t think he is/was fucked financially by the system.
He had high outgoings with low income. That was his choice.

I agree. He made millions in his lifetime and I'm guessing he sold the Beverly Hills house in the summer of 2020 after not working for months during he pandemic, and lived off the proceeds for a few years (not a huge amount which wouldn't have gone far with six kids to support and a house to rent). If I'm wrong, then it's appalling that the Go Fund crowdfunder started.

nomas · 12/02/2026 19:01

zurigo · 12/02/2026 17:45

Article explaining why James VDB didn't get rich from Dawson's Creek:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15553215/Dawsons-Creek-contract-clause-James-Van-Der-Beek-no-money-reruns.html

It really should be mandatory for actors, particularly young ones, to have a media lawyer when signing agreements.

berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 18:22

zurigo · 12/02/2026 17:45

Article explaining why James VDB didn't get rich from Dawson's Creek:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15553215/Dawsons-Creek-contract-clause-James-Van-Der-Beek-no-money-reruns.html

That's referring to the repeats of Dawson's Creek. He still made millions of dollars from the show.

berlinbaby2025 · 12/02/2026 18:15

nomas · 12/02/2026 14:21

It seems the memorabilia was sold to raise money for a cancer charity, which is noble but seems misguided.

Show quote history

I've read it was for his cancer treatment as well, but I take your point.

Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 18:15

bumptybum · 12/02/2026 18:08

Would he not have earned enough to buy a home. I wonder what he chose not to

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I think some people on the thread have said he owned a place in LA that he rented out, and he was renting the house in Texas as they had decided to move states and I suppose renting was a temporary thing. Then I guess he got diagnosed and perhaps if they had plans to buy in Texas, those plans changed maybe because of medical costs - but it's all speculation.

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Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 18:11

Swiftie1878 · 12/02/2026 18:06

Private education for children and running a mansion is not cheap.

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I don't think we really know the details of his children's education or what his house cost, but the point is that he could afford those things. Then he got cancer and had to pay enormous bills. People in America face huge medical bills whatever their income. So whatever anyone thinks about James VDB's financial planning (based on the scant information we have about his affairs) my point in starting this thread was to say that medical care in the US is unaffordable for many people, as we can see from what has been shared about him. There are millions of people in the US with poor or non existent health insurance, and many people with reasonable health insurance that still throws up large bills that put financial pressure on people. People go bankrupt because they can't pay medical bills and people die because insurance companies won't cover the treatment they need. It's a scandal, and something we need to prevent happening here in the UK.

OP posts:
pocketpairs · 12/02/2026 18:10

Loved Dawson's creek and James Van Der Beek really evolved as an actor. Really sad and shocking news.

The sad thing is Reform will destroy the NHS, bringing in an insurance based model, and the very people that voters for them will likely suffer most.

Annoying that the rest of us, who are not racists, will also pay the consequences of their uneducated choices..

bumptybum · 12/02/2026 18:08

goldtrap · 12/02/2026 09:02

Well, ignoring your clickbait .... title

if Dawson couldn't pay for his cancer treatment, how do non-famous people in ordinary jobs cope?

You mean Van der Beek? (Or do you mean Dawson the TV series?)

VDB was in a famously unstable profession. After Dawson's he had piecemeal acting jobs. He was not a home-owner. He had 6 kids. Likely if he were in a regular profession he could have organised health insurance a part of his employment package.

Of course healthcare in the US is expensive and yes, the model is seriously flawed. But you are BU to suggest that 'non-famous' people = financial ruin. It's really disingenous.

Would he not have earned enough to buy a home. I wonder what he chose not to

Swiftie1878 · 12/02/2026 18:06

Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 18:04

The high outgoings that fucked him were the costs of cancer treatment. Not really a choice?!

Show quote history

Private education for children and running a mansion is not cheap.

Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 18:04

Swiftie1878 · 12/02/2026 18:03

I don’t think he is/was fucked financially by the system.
He had high outgoings with low income. That was his choice.

The high outgoings that fucked him were the costs of cancer treatment. Not really a choice?!

OP posts:
Swiftie1878 · 12/02/2026 18:03

I don’t think he is/was fucked financially by the system.
He had high outgoings with low income. That was his choice.

Original poster
Hitthebestbooth · 12/02/2026 17:59

zurigo · 12/02/2026 17:45

Article explaining why James VDB didn't get rich from Dawson's Creek:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15553215/Dawsons-Creek-contract-clause-James-Van-Der-Beek-no-money-reruns.html

So if he wasn't rich, then he's an example of a person with an ordinary amount of money and he struggled to pay for his cancer treatment - the point I'm making is still the same. Perhaps only the wealthy can afford cancer treatment and he's a well-known example of a non-wealthy person so a helpful illustration of why the US healthcare system is so frightening?

Like I've said, however much money James VDB did or didn't make from his TV and film career, he had access to resources most people don't in terms of celebrity connections (the New York fundraiser held by the cast last year), sponsorship deals, reality TV shows that he appeared on in the past couple of years and memorabilia to sell. But having cancer still put him under considerable financial pressure that's been well-publicised because of his profile.

Some people seem to be arguing that no one should be self employed, in a creative or otherwise unstable career in America or have multiple children just in case they get a disease. But plenty of people are in precarious situations, or jobs that don't come with good health insurance packages, or they have children when they are expecting to live a long time and have good earning potential. So if these people get cancer, what do they do? Apparently they might lose their homes and all their savings to pay enormous costs for treatment at risk of bankrupting themselves.

It's not about James VDB in particular; he's just an example because we happen to know his story. On this thread people swing between saying he was worth millions and people saying he was unemployed and on the skids - I don't think it really matters either way or in between. The point is, it seems like very many people in the US are absolutely fucked financially if they get cancer and I don't want our healthcare system to go the same way.

OP posts:
Hatty65 · 12/02/2026 17:54

DH and I watch a lot of Medical Detectives/Forensic Files stuff and he commented today that an awful lot of these perpetrators clearly have serious mental health issues.

It occurred to me that they probably don't have medical insurance, don't visit a doctor, and that even if they've been diagnosed as needing psychiatric help or meds that they probably don't have the ability or funds to pay for these. If you are a paranoid schizophrenic and are unmedicated due to lack of income in a culture that makes it easy to obtain guns it's a total recipe for disaster.

Grammarnut · 12/02/2026 17:41

nomas · 12/02/2026 12:31

Which begs the question of why did they have 6 kids?

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People should have kids. Perhaps they thought they could afford them? I doubt they expected to be struck down by bowel cancer - and the US system doesn't seem to do preventive medicine or early diagnosis very well.

BruFord · 12/02/2026 15:51

@Hitthebestbooth 45 is the recommended age to start routine screenings in the US (it used to be 50) so he probably hadn’t been screened yet as he was only just old enough, poor man.

It’s like being offered a smear test or mammogram, it’s optional and not everyone chooses to be screened if they don’t think they’re high-risk.