SAN DIEGO–One-third of all donations on the fundraising site GoFundMe goes towards healthcare costs, according to the company’s CEO.
GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon said approximately 250,000 campaigns have been set up through the site to date to help pay for healthcare costs, raising $650 million in contributions.
Founded in 2010, GoFundMe helps users create fundraisers for dozens of categories, including education, faith and business and even an attempt at funding the border wall with Mexico. Solomon told CBS Moneywatch News he never expected such a large portion of campaigns to be focused on healthcare.
“When we started in 2010, it wasn’t purposefully set up and built to be a substitute for medical insurance,” Solomon told CBS. “We weren’t ever set up to be a healthcare company and we still are not. But over time, people have used GoFundMe for the most important issues they are faced with.”
Fewer People Have Insurance
CBS reported one possible reason for the rising demand in crowdfunding healthcare costs could be the drop in health insurance coverage in recent years, and cited a new report from Gallup that shows uninsured rates in the U.S. have reached a four-year high, with nearly 13.7% adults in the U.S. reporting they are uninsured. Coverage is at its lowest since the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate was put into effect in 2014, Gallup said. According to the report, about seven million more adults are without health insurance since the number started rising in 2016.
As CUToday.info reported earlier, during the recent government shutdown furloughed federal workers also turned to GoFundMe to help pay for medical expenses.