Oof. I didn’t know he died.
He was amazing on Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23.
Absolutely hilarious on that show.
CAPITALISM!..yay?
Curiously, for a guy with a Dutch surname had he lived in The Netherlands, even though that country does not have a National Healthcare System and instead has (hightly regulated) Healthcare Insurance, fighting cancer wouldn’t have left his family near bankrupt.
for a guy with a Dutch surname
Born in Connecticut.
fighting cancer wouldn’t have left his family near bankrupt.
Hell, he might have survived it if he’d had access to regular checkups and early intervention.
Nah, one thing Dutch healthcare does not do is regular checkups and interventions. I guess that free GP visits could have helped though…
The system is working as it’s supposed to. In the future, nobody will leave inheritances except very wealthy people, because they swallowed everybody else’s inheritance.
Honestly, this is exactly why inheritance should be taxed to hell and back.
I truly understand the idea of wanting to make sure your family is looked out for after you’re gone. However, if governments gave a shit, about making their country truly great and something to be admired by the rest of the world, they would put the well-being of all of their citizens first and foremost by creating a social safety net that would never leave your family destitute if something happened to you.
If I die there should be no concern of who will put food on the table, or make sure my family has access to healthcare or an education in any developed country that claims greatness. Especially not one producing the kind of disgustingly oblivious bottomless pit levels of wealth responsible for some of the most justifiably hated villains in history.
If only there was some system that could allow you to pump money and resources back into your country’s economy without quid pro quo private donations and business deals for public contracts…
Obviously this applies in particular to the U.S., but favoring policies that harm the many in order to help the wealthy few preserve the resources they have hoarded and obtained by exploiting others, seems to be spreading like an STD beyond the borders to many other countries that should clearly know better.
Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World
It’s hard to say if it was ever really anything exclusive to the U.S. or if we just copied somebody else’s idea and super sized it.
The Richest Man in Germany Is Worth $44 Billion. The Source of His Family Fortune? The Nazis Know.
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaire$ Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
T.L.D.R.: Inheritance tax would mean people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t exist. Likely Peter Thiel too, to a lesser extent, and there would be no need to worry about leaving your family a safety net because those taxes would go towards creating a safety net that ensures the basic needs of all citizens are taken care of.
Valid, great post.
However, it would be nice if regular parents and grandparents can leave their beloved possessions and assets to their offspring, and give them a little lift in the middle of their lives, and allow them to retire early, or start a business, or just grow their retirement. I would hate if the law evens the score with Oligarchs, at the expense of middle class and poor people losing out on one of the few, relatively small advantages they might get in their entire lives.
It reminds me of the Star Trek Universe, where replicator technology rendered money useless, since anyone could simply create anything they wanted from the replicator.
Want to have a game of catch? Replicate some broken in gloves and a ball, and go toss it around. When you’re done, you just feed it all back into the replicator to be turned into something else. Nobody really owns anything, they just replicate it as they need it, including food.
It reminds me of the Star Trek Universe
It was explicitly a reference to the “Sharing” Economy (Uber, AirBnB, Grubhub, etc) that would supposedly supplant the modern retail sector. So, less replicators and more endless piles of single-use plastics with your take out.
Nah, I’ll just do a cost-benefit analysis whether I should get treatment or just fucking die.
Even if I could afford treatment, if it’s a guaranteed death sentence I’m booking a flight to a place with doctor assisted suicide.
Going through hell just so you can live a bit longer and suffer the whole time sounds dumb to me.
Life’s different with kids. I’d literally give up anything for an extra hour with my kids. I would also give up everything to give them a better life. It’s a complicated situation and people are dumbing it down as much as possible, and it’s a little unfair. It’s very easy to say what you’d do when it’s just you, but these fucking progeny put their hooks in you, I swear to God. They have made me into a person I never thought I would be, and I can guarantee if they said “Dad, five more minutes,” I’d do it.
None of this should even be a talking point. Dude should’ve had access to treatment regardless, and he shouldn’t have to worry about jeopardizing his kids next 20 years for their next 20 days. It’s gross. It makes me sad.
At the end, when he was out of money, and going to die anyway, and about to leave his wife and six kids broke, I’ll bet he wished he had ended it earlier.
You caught a downvote for that comment because some people don’t like confronting reality, but that’s literally what my late father-in-law told me on his deathbed. He had been battling cancer for about a year by that point, and was partially paralyzed around the six month mark after his vertebrae collapsed from it spreading to his bones. My wife was his constant in-home caregiver after that, while I took on a ton of overtime and freelance work to financially support both of us.
One day, I was over at his house taking care of him, because my wife needed a girl’s night for herself to just get away from things for a few moments. While I was feeding him, he broke down in tears and said he wished he had been hit by a bus instead, because at least then he would have had his dignity intact and would have been able to leave my wife some sort of inheritance. He died two days later.
I’ll never tell my wife about that conversation. She was already dealing with enough mental, emotional, and physical stress from the caregiving (and her own health issues, which the stress compounded), and I didn’t want to add to it. And now at this point, it’s better to just let sleeping dogs lie.
Fuck cancer.
At least he was able to get his guilt off his chest, kind of like confessing to a priest. He probably chose to do that with you, instead of your wife, for the same reasons as yours.
If someone asked me “How much money would you pay to spend an extra year with your dad?” I don’t know if there’s an upper limit.
Of course, but that’s you. HE would probably rather you remember him when he was healthier, not slowly dying ugly, and use the money to make his grandchildren’s lives better.
Either way, you will grieve his loss, but one way leaves his offspring better off. Most Dads know which choice they’d make, even if their loving children would disagree. Good dads have to make the tough choices for their family.
“In the wake of this loss, Kimberly and the children are facing an uncertain future,” the GoFundMe page reads. “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.
What an uncivilized shithole of a country. Civilized countries have single payer health insurance.
Good lord, you godless communists never think of other people! What about shareholder value?!
But seriously, as an older person, I hope I go quickly and quietly.
I’ve increased my cholesterol intake and signed my DNR’s.
Absolutely right. Thank you for posting this, OP.
Either I’ve seen this type of thing before when he first went public, or it’s been some other famous person needing to do similar. Could be both, honestly. Leads to the same problem. Even money can’t save you in this kind of crooked system.
He already auctioned off a lot of his Dawson’s Creek memorabilia to pay his medical costs.
Or a National Health Service?
I think the National Health Service (assuming you mean in the UK) is a form of single-payer healthcare
I was meaning the NHS in the UK. I’d not heard the phrase “single-payer healthcare” before and sort of assumed it was some form of “health insurance” thing, but one significantly less insane than the American system.
I tried looking at the Wikipaedia page for it, but now it’s even less clear - it says “The term was coined in the 1990s to characterize the differences between the Canadian healthcare system with those such as the United Kingdom’s NHS”, suggesting it very much means “not the NHS” - though it also mentions UK healthcare elsewhere on the page???
Anyway, the essence of the point is the same - the way the American system works is insane and barbaric, and there are better, proven to work, options available which are currently used in other countries :)
He left 6 kids behind. At the end, he had to have been thinking that if he knew he’d blow all of his money, and still die anyway, his family would have been better off if he had just committed suicide when he first got the news.
That’s what I’d be thinking. That’s the kind of shithole medical care we get in this country, because both parties think it’s more important to use our health as a weapon to manipulate us.
its also significant that is colorectal cancer in someone in thier 30s/40s which tend to be more aggressive than the usually 50-90s
I don’t know if I’m spreading FUD but it seems like colon cancer is on the rise for younger people and I’m afraid because I’m on that age range
Free Luigi
They’re trying to raise 1 million and they’re at 600k now so they’re probably going to make it. My brain is pushing back hard on looking for charity in the realm of a million dollars for a singular family and I’m sure a lot are with me, but the family does seem to have been downsizing before his death and does really seem to have been auctioning off their valuable possessions.
A million bucks to raise six kids, and send them to college, isn’t going to go far.
his cancer was already mestasized by the time he was diagnosed, so likely he was trying drastic expensive treatment from the get-go to get it under control.
His family would have been better off if he’d ended it when he got the news. We have a health care system where suicide, as a medical cost-saving strategy, is realistically on the list of options.
Honestly, Medical care is so expensive I wouldn’t begrudge anyone asking for enough money to cover it and some money to just breathe. Honestly, no one’s medical debt should outlive them.
Insane
Fuck me cant remember if he is a bad guy, a forgotten decent guy, or just a guy
IIRC he was pretty decent. I never watched Dawson’s Creek but I’ve watch a bunch of stuff he was in later and I enjoyed those characters. It’s a real shame about his death but this really kind of highlights how insane our medical system is when a famous actor can be bankrupted simply by having cancer.
He was funny playing a version of himself in “Don’t Trust the B**** in Apt 23”
Honestly, I completely forgot he was dead.
Edit: I guess I saw this article before seeing the one about him dying
He also played a hilarious version of himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
To be fair, he’s only recently dead. Don’t feel too bad.
I guess I missed that news
i think hes decent, he played a “horny teenager” in the show and he has a family for a long time apparently since then.
He should have cooked meth.
I like to think that James van der Beek, Aaron Paul, and David Tennant are all different facets of the same person who acted with Krysten Ritter.
Doubtful
Not even the least bit doubtful.
It is a bit odd since sag-aftra members have pretty decent insurance policies for their members. My best guess is that he was probably seeking care from an out of network provider and paying out of pocket.
Unfortunately there are a lot of predatory cancer clinics who specialize in selling false hope to wealthy clients with terminal illnesses. It’s still an awful byproduct of the American healthcare network, but it is a more unusual aspect of it.
Every actor has to be in good standing with SAG-AFRA in order to qualify for health insurance, and if the actor hasn’t worked in a while they are not considered in good standing so lose the insurance.
It’s best if you research these things before commenting.
deleted by creator
Every actor has to be in good standing with SAG-AFRA in order to qualify for health insurance, and if the actor hasn’t worked in a while they are not considered in good standing so lose the insurance.
He was regularly working as an actor in 2025…>Imbd. Likely to maintain his insurance coverage.
It’s best if you research these things before commenting.
Cool. How many hours must he have had to work to keep his insurance? How much medical debt had he accumulated before 2025? And if he was working ‘regularly’ why was he still selling his memorabilia?
Cool. How many hours must he have had to work to keep his insurance?
You have to work a certain amount of day or make a certain amount of compensation as a performer, to qualify for insurance its a little over 100 days or so 28k and that includes residuals, production, and background work.
How much medical debt had he accumulated before 2025?
As I stated in my original comment, you can still have medical debt while having decent insurance. I’m not saying that the medical system is good, or fair.
And if he was working ‘regularly’ why was he still selling his memorabilia?
For one… I never said he wasn’t in medical debt. Secondly, if I had 6 kids and knew I wasn’t going to be around to financially secure their future I would be hawking memorabilia as well.
I don’t think they are destitute, they still have a multi-million dollar home outside of Austin. I think he was just doing anything possible to maintain their financial norms as much as possible.
Not how it works when you have cancer.
The treatments come from a specialty pharmacy and don’t count as a part of your out of pocket maximum. There’s no limit on what they can charge for that. Additionally, any of the bleeding edge treatments, are never covered by insurance. And when your life is on the line, you want the bleeding edge treatments.
The treatments come from a specialty pharmacy and don’t count as a part of your out of pocket maximum.
That is entirely dependent on your insurance plan. Sag aftra has specialty drug coverage
“CVS Specialty for specialty medications Specialty drugs are high-cost oral or injectable medications used to treat complex conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, HIV, psoriasis, rare genetic disorders and cancer. These medications will only be covered when filled through CVS Specialty. Visit cvsspecialty.com/DrugList for a list of covered medications that is updated quarterly. When your drug is on the list, you pay $0”
If you visit the drug list for oncology, it’s fairly extensive compared to programs like Medicare or Medicaid.
Additionally, any of the bleeding edge treatments, are never covered by insurance. And when your life is on the line, you want the bleeding edge treatments.
That’s what I was talking about when I spoke about specialty clinics that predate on wealthy clients.
Unfortunately if you are seeking bleeding edge cancer treatments your cancer is likely already advanced enough that your outcomes are looking pretty bad.
I can tell you, having gone through the CVS specialty pharmacy stuff for chemo medication specifically, it is absolutely not covered in the way you or they have said, and you absolutely do not pay $0.
Have you ever had cancer or had a family member go through cancer treatments? Because if you haven’t, you probably shouldn’t speak from a position of authority on things for which you have no direct personal experience with.
I have both had very close family members go through this and am going through something similar myself personally.
My copay is absolutely not $0 from CVS specialty pharmacy. Usually, for a $9k-12k prescription (Depends on the dosage they decide I need), I end up needing to cover around $2k/month, after insurance. And that’s with having double insurance providers. Some of that can be helped out with from other assistance programs from the manufacturer, such as a manf. co-pay card, but the money I pay towards it does not count towards my out of pocket deductible, so I’m forced to also hit my OOP maximum from normal procedures that aren’t related to the specialty pharmacy medication.
Additionally, health insurance has been covering less and less of my medications and procedures each and every year. So it keeps getting worse for me, and I assume everyone else, including those in the SAG.
can tell you, having gone through the CVS specialty pharmacy stuff for chemo medication specifically, it is absolutely not covered in the way you or they have said, and you absolutely do not pay $0.
It’s dependent on your individual insurance plan and what kind of coverage you have… This is the reason I said the Sag-aftra policy was pretty decent compared to most private insurance policies. The quote I gave is directly from the policy they currently have, which would be different than the policy you have experience with even if you utilized the same pharmaceutical company.
Have you ever had cancer or had a family member go through cancer treatments? Because if you haven’t, you probably shouldn’t speak from a position of authority on things for which you have no direct personal experience with.
Yes, and Im a healthcare provider in a field where a lot of my patients population have been or currently are in being treated by oncologist.
My copay is absolutely not $0 from CVS specialty pharmacy. Usually, for a $9k-12k prescription (Depends on the dosage they decide I need), I end up needing to cover around $2k/month, after insurance. And that’s with having double insurance providers.
While it’s disheartening to hear that, that does not mean that is going to be the same for someone with a different policy than you. Sag-aftra has a very good policy because they have group bargained as a union to get the best care for their members. Which is different than most private insurance policies that are sponsored by workplaces who bargain to get their employees the cheapest policies available.
I’m not trying to make excuses for the American healthcare system of inequality. I was just pointing out that the union provided policy was particularly impressive compared to most. It’s sure as hell alot better than my policy and I work for my state’s largest healthcare provider.
I don’t doubt the bills were large, but I doubt he left his family penniless.
