Patients increasingly relying on crowdfunding to pay medical costs

GoFundMe, the online crowdfunding platform, started in 2010 as a place to ask for help paying for “ideas and dreams” or “special occasions”. Now it’s where desperate families and patients are going, and being encouraged to go, to pay for life-saving healthcare or medical bills. In 2020, the annual number of US campaigns related to medical causes was 200,000 – 25 times higher than in 2010. Last year the Guardian reported that the number of medical campaigns in the UK containing the words “go private” or “privately” had doubled since before the pandemic as waiting lists lengthened. A spokesperson for the platform told KFF Health News “medical expenses” were now the most common category of fundraiser it hosts. Communities coming together to help those in need when the existing system is failing is surely a good thing? Up to a point. Influencers, famous people or those who have friends with money are much more likely to meet their financial targets. A 2017 study found most medical-expense campaigns in the US fall far short of their goal. The company’s CEO, Tim Cadogan, told KFF: “We are not, and cannot, be the solution to complex, systemic problems that are best solved with meaningful public policy”. What he said.