Kristen Bell & Matt Damon are paying off people’s medical debt—but why should they have to?

Kristen Bell is kicking off 2025 by doing good works. She’s teamed up with influencer Quentin Quarantino (not to be confused with director Quentin Tarantino), aka Tommy Marcus, to help Americans as they fight to have their health needs met.

According to DMs posted by the duo, it all started when Marcus reached out to Bell on Instagram and suggested paying off individual health-related GoFundMes. Distressingly, GoFundMe is often the first port of call when a family needs to pay major medical bills, and they have to compete with so many other struggling families to get much-needed donations.

The DM from Marcus began with, “I had this idea to harness this public energy around the broken healthcare system by sharing one health-related GoFundMe every day for a week.” There has certainly been new public energy since the much-publicized assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. During the manhunt for suspect Luigi Mangione, many Americans expressed admiration for him and minimal sympathy for the victim, who they felt had gotten rich off the back of sick people’s suffering.

“I get so many tragic health insurance related GoFundMes sent to me per week,” Marcus wrote to Bell, which in itself says so, so much about the American system. “Was wondering if you’d be interested in joining along starting tomorrow.” Bell was interested, and for the past three days, she’s been sharing stories of people, including children, who desperately need money to pay for health treatments. After a GoFundMe Bell and Marcus post on Instagram reaches half its goal, Bell pays off the other half.

Another big name got involved as the campaign went on. Matt Damon, the Oscar-winning star of films like The Martian and Saving Private Ryan, pledged $100k along with his wife, Luciana Damon. So far, three campaigns have been highlighted and paid off. One, a campaign for a third grader named Mia fighting leukemia, achieved its target within 20 minutes.

“I know there is a sad element to this, but this is the system we are working with, and there are so many people who need help,” Marcus wrote on Instagram. “Neither Kristen, me, or you reading this can immediately make change happen on a policy level, but what we CAN do is change the futures of many families starting now.”

Obviously, paying off people’s medical bills is a very kind thing to do if you’re a person with disposable cash. But it’s heartrending that anyone should have to rely on the generosity of rich celebrities to pay for lifesaving treatment. There should be a healthcare system that values people, not profit and doesn’t send people into debt for having the bad luck to contract an illness. Sadly, that seems very out of reach right now. As Kristen Bell’s character said on the hit TV show The Good Place, we’re currently in the bad place.