FALMOUTH, Maine - People use crowdfunding for all sorts of things - to make movies, create new products...and to cover health expenses. A number of Maine families are turning to sites such as GoFundMe to raise money to pay looming medical bills and related expenses. Even some of those who have insurance coverage find they still need extra financial support. But there are some drawbacks to the strategy.
Shortly after Henry Morgan's first birthday in April, the typically happy baby became fussy. He lost his appetite. It took a few trips to the doctor before he was diagnosed with inoperable neuroblastoma - it's a cancerous mass in his abdomen.
His mom, Meghan Morgan, says he's been in the hospital for nearly a month. "It looks like this is definitely going to be the next six months or so, is going to be the more intensive treatment stuff. So we're going to be staying in the hospital."
Morgan hopes they can return to their home in Falmouth periodically. But she's unable to work at her dog-walking business, and she has to pay a $5,000 deductible on her son's insurance plan. The lost income and medical bills prompted Morgan's friends and family to set up a fundraising campaign on the website GoFundMe.
Morgan says she was initially opposed to the idea. "First of all, it never would have occurred to me to ask someone for help. I'm a single mom, I'm very independent. It's just me and Henry, and that's great."
But Morgan has been floored by the response. The goal was to raise $20,000. So far, it's raised more than twice as much. "I mean, it's so overwhelming. So many strangers. People from all across the country. And my favorite is when they leave wonderful little notes in the comments, like 'Thinking of you from Maryland.' "
According to a written statement from GoFundMe, medical campaigns have always been one of its most popular categories, raising nearly $230 million since the website launched in 2010. Recent high-profile crowdfunding campaigns in New England have used the site.
A campaign to cover missed work for a Windham man who volunteered to donate a kidney to a woman who scrawled a plea on the back of her car surpassed a $6,000 goal to reach nearly $50,000. And a campaign for a Massachusetts woman who was struck in the head by a flying bat at Fenway Park recently has a goal to raise $30,000.
While these campaigns can be helpful for recipients, independent health policy consultant Mitchell Stein says crowdfunding is not a sustainable model, and it's not accessible to everyone who needs help.
"We've seen that you need to be very social media savvy to use these crowdfunding sites," Stein says. "It doesn't hurt if you're photogenic, and if you belong to the same community as the people who have the money to contribute."
Crowdfunding's popularity reveals pervasive problems in the health system, says Stein. Some people still don't have insurance. Those that do, says Jeff Austin of the Maine Hospital Association, may still struggle.
"We're not surprised to hear about people having difficulty paying bills, particularly with the new way that insurance is being provided to people with very high deductibles that they can't afford," Austin says.
But the accompanying expenses that come with some medical issues - like lodging and travel to different hospitals, as well as lost income from missed work, are another problem, says Mitchell Stein.
"Some people do benefit from the Family Medical Leave Act - that is unpaid leave. In other countries, that becomes paid leave, and it almost becomes like a disability payment," Stein says. "And I think to address these kinds of circumstances, we need to rethink how we help people in those conditions."
Amy Cossar of Old Town recently set up a campaign for her six-month-old son Hunter Ziegenbein. He's been diagnosed with several conditions that affect his muscles and his brain. "And that's all we know of right now," Cossar says. "We're waiting for testing to come back for one more condition we're not sure about."
Though Hunter has MaineCare, Cossar says the family has already wracked up thousands of dollars in uncovered medical bills. She can't work at her job at the YMCA anymore, and Hunter's father's job as a manager at a fast food restaurant isn't enough to cover all of their expenses.
Cossar hopes to raise $5,000 on GoFundMe. "It was almost like a pride thing, that I didn't want to have to do that, but it got to a point where it needed to happen," she says. "Once we got $100, I cried."
The success of Henry Morgan's campaign has given his mom Meghan peace of mind that she can keep up with bills, and the hope that the two of them will return to a normal life someday.
