Life and Debt: Stories of the GoFundMe Health System of America

The human body is a fragile thing, and the disease is a ruthless adversary. Every day, countless Americans are diagnosed with a devastating illness or suffer a sudden injury that threatens to put their lives at risk and tear their families apart.

This misfortune often has an extremely high financial cost that can be just as cruel.

While health insurance or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare can guard against huge medical bills, considerable debt and even bankruptcy, only the true rich can ensure that the disease will not lead to financial ruin.

That is why thousands of Americans have turned to the crowdfunding site GoFundMe over the past decade to help cover medical bills and related costs. HuffPost describes some of these people and describes what their stories reveal about the weaknesses of the American health care system.

These are not stories of well-being.

This is often how the media covers these fundraisers – focusing on the generosity of individuals rather than the systemic failures that have created the need. While it's hard not to take inspiration from the successful campaigns and courage of those who suffer from terrifying ordeals, such stories show a frightening reality: Americans, even those who have a good job and an insurance disease, may one day escape from financial ruin.

Critical illness can be a financial burden for people, even in countries with universal health systems and strong safety nets. But the United States, which does not have any of this, makes their residents particularly vulnerable.

More than 70 million donors have donated more than $ 5 billion to GoFundMe campaigns between 2010 and 2017, according to GoFundMe, based in Redwood City, California, near San Francisco.

Two years ago, one-third of all funds raised went to the campaigns listed in the Medical category. GoFundMe reports that more than 250,000 medical fundraisers are added each year and raise $ 650 million annually.

Although fundraising figures give some idea of ​​the need behind the many campaigns, they are imprecise, according to GoFundMe. Users can choose the category of their choice. Therefore, all fundraising in the medical field is not intended for medical bills and related costs. Some users ask for help for these items in the other categories of the website. These figures also include funds raised in other countries.

Successful fundraising can generate $ 100,000 or more, as neighbors and strangers mobilize with families in need, and this money can go a long way toward ensuring treatment continues, shelter costs covered, and other daily expenses and the maintenance of families. while trying to keep loved ones alive and make them healthy.

Americans pay more for their health care than their counterparts in other developed countries. And although more than 90% among Americans have some form of health coverage, according to a 2017 federal survey, it is often inadequate. Some 45% According to a report released last year by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based think tank, a number of Americans are "underinsured." And 27% of Americans told West Health and Gallup that they had skipped medical care because of the cost of last year in the survey results published this year.

Among the reasons why Americans pay so much, high deductibles requiring thousands of dollars in expenses before insurance covers bills, significant point-of-service co-payments and expensive prescription drugs are among the top reasons. Add to this drug insurance companies that do not cover at all, non-eligible experimental treatments, medical providers that are not part of the insurance networks and other costs not covered, as well as medical bills up to millions of dollars. For the uninsured, there is no upper limit to what they might owe.

According to data from the Federal Reserve Board, 40% of Americans not having enough savings to cover emergency expenses exceeding $ 400. In the past year, Americans borrowed $ 88 billion to cover medical expenses, according to the West Health / Gallup survey. Among the Americans who declared bankruptcy from 2013 to 2016, 59% cited medical bills as a factor, according to a survey published this year in the American Journal of Public Health.

The illness often means a loss of income, because the patient and family members lack time at work during treatment. Transportation and accommodation costs accrue for people who have to travel long distances to receive care, including those in rural areas away from the nearest medical centers and those seeking medical care from Specialists practicing in leading institutions such as the Minnesota Mayo Clinic Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. These so-called indirect expenses are one of the reasons why fundraising in the medical field is the main category of GoFundMe in the world.

Running through the Medical category on GoFundMe offers a stark reminder that the disease does not discriminate. People from all walks of life and virtually every level of income, insured and uninsured, turn to their communities and strangers on the Internet to solve an unmanageable financial problem.

According to Rob Solomon, founder and CEO of GoFundMe, no charity is enough to offset America's ruthless and ruthless health care system. an interview with Kaiser Health News published in January.

"The system is terrible. We must rethink and reorganize. Politicians fail us. Healthcare companies are failing us. These are realities. I do not want to mince words here. We are facing a huge potential tragedy, "Solomon said. "We provide help to many people. But there are people who do not get help from us or the institutions that are supposed to be there. We should not be the solution to a complex set of systemic problems. "