GoFundMe—a privately held, for-profit company—started as a crowdfunding site for underwriting “ideas and dreams.” Now, “medical expenses” is the most common category of fundraiser. People use it in desperation to pay medical bills.
In 2020, there were 200,000 medical-related GoFundMe
campaigns in the U.S., which was 25 times higher than the number of such
campaigns in 2011. Right now, there are more than 500 campaigns asking for help
in paying for gene therapy for young children with spinal muscular dystrophy. (A
single-dose treatment costs $2.1 million.)
The thing is, unless you’re famous or have lots of rich
friends, the campaigns rarely help much. Almost all fall short of their goal,
and some raise little or no money. The average campaign makes it to about 40
percent of the target amount, percentages that are getting worse over time. One
woman, who was presented with $65,000 air ambulance bill (out of network), was
able to raise only $1,400.
Apparently, this way of paying medical bills is becoming
normalized. In some cases, patient advocates and hospital financial-aid
officers recommend crowdfunding to people who can’t afford their medical bills.
That’s sick.
For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.
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