Report: 20% of adults in the U.S. donated to crowdfunding campaigns to cover medical costs
Report: 20% of adults in the U.S. donated to crowdfunding campaigns to cover medical costs
Feb 20, 2020
by Marissa Higgins, Daily Kos Staff
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1920420
"SNIP.....
Have you ever donated to someone’s GoFundMe campaign? Perhaps scrolled by a tweet or Facebook post asking people to donate to someone’s surgery or medication cost? According to a new survey from the nonpartisan NORC at the University of Chicago, an estimated 8 million American adults have created crowdfunding campaigns for themselves (or someone in their household) to pay for health treatments or medical bills. A full 20% of adults say they’ve donated to someone else’s crowdfunding effort, which, put another way, is about 50 million people.
Given that medical debt is one of the top reasons people file for bankruptcy, crowdfunding medical costs makes sense, but the numbers are a big reminder that we need health care reform—and soon.
Even with insurance, deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket costs can be staggering. So, what do people do? In addition to second jobs, selling belongings, moving in with family, and a variety of other methods to make it work, people turn to the internet to crowdfund health care costs.
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35% of survey respondents say they donated to the campaign of someone they didn’t know, while 61% said they donated to a relative’s campaign. 46% said they donated to a friend’s effort, while nearly one-quarter said they donated to an acquaintance's. Less than 20% said they donated to coworkers’ campaigns.
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Can't we think of good healthcare as giant crowdfunding?
