GoFundMe campaigns for medical bills represent one-third of all the platform’s crowdsourcing efforts, but few reach their goal
Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton, 55, is in intensive care with pneumonia in a Texas hospital. Her daughter, McKenna Kelley, said her gold-medal-winning mother is “fighting for her life” and currently unable to breathe on her own.
“Despite its popularity and portrayals as an ad-hoc safety net, medical crowdfunding is misaligned with key indicators of health financing needs in the United States. It is best positioned to help in populations that need it the least,” they added. About one in 10 Americans, translating to 23 million people, has significant medical debt, according to an analysis by KFF. “It’s not just the direct medical costs, it’s also the lost wages — not just the person who’s sick, but of the family members who care for them,” Cox added.
“It’s not uncommon for people to have a $2,000 or $7,000 annual deductible, and most people only have $400 in their savings account, so meeting these bills very suddenly — generally it’s an accident or diagnosis — sets people back quite quickly,” she added. Kelmar cites a range of challenges for Americans when it comes to healthcare costs. “It’s very difficult to shop around, you can’t get prices in advance and you can’t avoid the cost of healthcare. You can’t say, ‘I’m not going to do it today. I’ll do it next month and save up.’”
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