Eight million Americans have created a crowdfunding campaign to pay medical bills, while another 12 million have done so on behalf of someone else. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Americans may not want to pay higher taxes to pay for universal health care, but they are willing to voluntarily contribute to another person's health care costs–whether they know the individual personally or not.
With no overall solution to the problem of unaffordable health care in sight, Americans have instead turned to Band-Aid fixes, such as skipping care, rationing drugs, and even flying to other countries for major procedures. Another trend in recent years: crowdfunding to cover the cost of medical bills.
According to a recent study from the NORC at University of Chicago, 20 percent of American adults have contributed to a crowdfunding campaign to help someone cover their medical bills.
"As annual out-of-pocket costs continue to rise, more Americans are struggling to pay their medical bills, and millions are turning to their social networks and crowdfunding sites to fund medical treatments and pay medical bills," said Mollie Hertel, senior research scientist at NORC. "Although about a quarter of Americans report having sponsored or donated to a campaign, this share is likely to increase in the face of rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs."
How common is this bill pay strategy? According to the survey, 8 million Americans have created a crowdfunding campaign to pay medical bills, while another 12 million have done so on behalf of someone else, amounting to approximately 8 percent of all Americans.
The study also asked who should ultimately be responsible for covering the costs of unaffordable medical procedures. While 73 percent of respondents felt they personally had either some or a great deal of responsibility to chip in, 85 percent also felt the government should be shouldering a greater role.
"It is clear that Americans want government and providers to work together to provide charity or assistance when needed," said Susan Cahn, senior research scientist at NORC. "Fewer Americans think that family, friends or even strangers should shoulder the costs of care that patients and their families cannot afford."
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Emily Payne
Emily Payne is director, content analytics for ALM's Business & Finance Markets and former managing editor for BenefitsPRO. A Wisconsin native, she has spent the past decade writing and editing for various athletic and fitness publications. She holds an English degree and Business certificate from the University of Wisconsin.
