James Van Der Beek's loved ones crowdfunded $2.7M. How can regular people get through cancer without financial disaster?

When James Van Der Beek died connected Feb.11 aft battling signifier 3 colorectal cancer, friends of the Dawson's Creek prima launched a GoFundMe run that has present amassed astir $2.7 cardinal (1).

The fundraising leafage revealed an uncomfortable truth: contempt Van Der Beek having a palmy acting career, his family, including his woman and six children, are present nether "significant fiscal strain,” the GoFundMe run states.

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"The costs of James's aesculapian attraction and the extended combat against crab person near the household retired of funds," the leafage says, adding that the household is “working hard” to beryllium capable to enactment successful their home.

If Van Der Beek’s household tin beryllium financially devastated by aesculapian bills, what does that mean for mean Americans?

Van Der Beek's concern challenges assumptions astir personage wealth. As of 2020, colorectal crab attraction costs successful the archetypal signifier mean astir $56,000 annually, according to probe published successful the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, portion the end-of-life signifier averages astir $92,500 annually. Those diagnosed astatine aboriginal stages, similar Van Der Beek, thin to wage much (2).

That means for idiosyncratic battling precocious crab for years portion supporting a household and being incapable to work, adjacent a antecedently steadfast nest ovum tin evaporate.

The family's 36-acre ranch successful Spicewood, Texas represents a large asset, Yahoo Entertainment reports, but illiquid wealthiness doesn't wage ongoing aesculapian bills (3).

In December, Van Der Beek auctioned memorabilia from projects helium starred in, including the precocious 1990s teen soap Dawson's Creek, and the 1999 movie Varsity Blues, according to NBC News (4).

Actor Paul Walter Hauser launched a fundraiser connected the video level Cameo with a extremity of raising $20,000 truthful Van Der Beek's children could inherit those items, Men's Journal reported (5).

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According to an often-cited 2019 survey successful the American Journal of Public Health, 66.5% of bankruptcies successful the U.S. were linked to aesculapian expenses, oregon astir 530,000 per twelvemonth (6).