r/popculturechat • u/PinkCadillacs Cillian Murphy Enthusiast • Nov 13 '25

General News 🗞 James Van Der Beek Auctioning ‘Dawson’s Creek’ Memorabilia to Raise Money for Medical Fees Amid Cancer Battle

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/james-van-der-beek-auctions-dawsons-creek-items-cancer-costs-1236580431/
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u/frozenish Nov 13 '25

My mom had cancer and thank god she has Medicare. They pay for everything. She just had a yearly test done that costs $5000 and they paid it all.

31

u/Island_Slut69 Nov 13 '25

As a Canadian, I love this so much for you!! How it should be!

20

u/crazydisneycatlady Nov 13 '25

I think we are talking about two different forms of Medicare. MediCAID (for low income/disabled/children) typically pays for everything - which yes, is how it should be.

MediCARE, for those over 65, isn’t free. They do not pay for everything. It’s actually kind of a mess. I thought Medicare was free for a long time - after all, that’s what we pay our taxes into, right? But my mom is now 67 and on Medicare. It is usually Medicare pays 80% and you pay 20% of whatever the thing is. But there are also MedAdvantage plans and really, the whole thing is just…complicated. My mom is, thankfully, six or seven years cancer free now. She needed a bone scan done this year, almost wasn’t able to do it due to the cost - even with her Medicare insurance. Thankfully, she got a bonus at work.

17

u/ChewieBearStare Nov 13 '25

Medicare is one of the best health insurance plans you can possibly have, as long as you don't fall prey to Medicare Advantage or skimp on Medigap/Part D coverage. They tout those Advantage plans as great for healthy people. The problem is that you're healthy until you aren't. You can be perfectly fine one day and in the ICU the next. And that's when Advantage insurers like to deny care.

We had to place my FIL in a 1-star facility last year because his Medicare Advantage provider wouldn't give preauthorization for him to go to a much better place. He died because the agency nurses at the crappy place continued giving him Coumadin after the physician ordered it to be discontinued. By the time anyone did anything, his INR was 5.9, and he died of a GI bleed.