How Crowdfunding Peer To Peer Lending Gave Support To Cancer Patients
This is how crowdfunding or peer to peer lending campaigns can not just be about making business profit or provide an alternative investment but instead provide a more deserving cause…
Lisa Salo, a kindergarten teacher from Georgia, is a breast cancer patient. Her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer were costing her $4,000, and she knew she would owe another $4,000 the next month.
“We did not want to go into problems with our house and credit,” says Lisa.
Salo and her husband had never been late with any bills before her health issue. But all the money they earn goes to their mortgage and two children. When Salo and her husband could not pay the first bill right away, the collection agencies started calling. They had no idea how to raise such an amount, and they were embarrassed to ask for help.
Hahnee Kang Oh, a parent of Salo’s former student, observed something was not right. Due to this, the parent set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Salo’s treatment.
More than a hundred people have donated, raising $6,855. Salo has been overwhelmed by the support – with a good insurance policy that does not require a co-pay for each treatment − given by 113 people.
US medications are some of the costliest treatments in the world. New treatments for cancer are priced on average at $120,000 per year. The overall cost of cancer treatments has grown a hundred folds when adjusted for inflation since 1965.
Even though concerned physicians tried to push back on drug manufacturers through op-eds and a Change.org petition to lower cancer treatment fees, some of the cancer patients are still unable to afford the medication costs. Because of that, they had to turn to crowdfunding sites for financial assistance.
Crowdfunding became known as the source of seed money for extraordinary inventions and awesome art projects. Crowdfunding financed a Veronica Mars movie, the development of the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift and a lot of potato salad for one lucky man. Progressively, it is being used as a lifeline for cancer patients who cannot afford expensive medications.
Hagop Kantarjian, chairman of the leukemia department at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said: “People are abandoning treatment. People are scared they will go bankrupt and they will take away from family necessities and have to choose between treatment to prolong life or spend money on their family.”
Kantarjian is also a vocal advocate for lower cancer drug pricing. In fact, Kantarjian’s Change.org petition calls for a couple of changes to lower cancer drug prices, including the right to import lower cost cancer drugs from Canada for personal user for patients who cannot manage to pay for US prices, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
“Patients should not have to deal with a lot of anxiety when they should be focused on fighting cancer.” says Kantarjian.
Sherie Drees, an art teacher and mother of twin seven-year-old boys, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is insured through the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. While her husband Dustin Drees says having insurance through the Affordable Care Act has meant a lot less hassle and unknowns, medical bills for his family are still going to exceed $10,000. “And that’s a lot of stress to know that you have to go through this hellish journey and be working to deal with these debts all the while,” says Drees.
Dustin Drees considers his family lucky, because his insurance has out-of-pocket maximums, so he knows his bills can’t go beyond a certain point no matter the treatment. So he felt “bad” when friends offered to set up a funding campaign to cover those maximums.
Amy Duffey, a family friend, set up a GoFundMe campaign for Sherie to try to help ease the stress on the family. The Drees had no idea what to anticipate and when. In 15 days, the campaign acquired $15,885 from 208 people, the Drees were overwhelmed. “People are amazing, they really are.” says Dustin Drees.
‘Healthcare is a human right; it is not a charity or a gift’
Check the medical section of any crowdfunding site and you will find many related stories, and innumerable ones that were less privileged and never raised enough to cover even one bill.
“Patients should never have to depend on the generosity of their communities for care.” says Kantarjian. “Healthcare is a human right; it is not a charity or a gift. People who have cancer should not have to beg for money and beg for drugs. All patients have the right to have access to healthcare 100% of their lives.”
That outlook is progressively being resounded by politicians on the campaign trail and in calls for drug pricing justification and reforms. The New York Times editorial board published an op-ed calling out pharmaceutical establishments for inflating the price of treatments with no reason, in particular those for cancer.
But even with public backlash, newer cancer treatments are still being priced even higher, and the tension on patients seems to be getting worse. It has only become harder as newer and more effective chemotherapy drugs come with “exorbitant” fees, says Wendy Stock, professor of medicine and director of the leukemia program at the University of Chicago.
Like Kantarjian, Stock is one of the signers of the joint op-ed by leading oncologists calling for lower cancer drug expenses in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Her practice has had to “spend a huge amount of time trying to get these drugs paid for by other mechanisms for patients”. Charities exist that help pay some of the charges. However, charities have limitations in what they can do to assist, and often only help those with the most directmonetary circumstances.
According to Stock, several patients acquire just enough moneynot to qualify for help from donations, yet still cannot afford the co-pays. Stock suggests the best medication possible for her patients, but says “sometimes we do have to make compromises”, that weigh the cost for patients against the effectiveness of the medication.
Kantarjian laments that the pharmaceutical industry has “lost its moral compass” in pursuit of bigger profits. But he sees a reason to be hopeful that drug companies may be receptive if enough pressure is applied.
In 2012, a prominent cancer care hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering refused to prescribe Zaltrap, a newly approved cancer treatment, due to its extremely high cost coupled with lack of proof that the drug was much better than other available cures. The manufacture of the drug, sanofi-aventis, ended up cutting the price in half because of the push back. “Drug companies need to put patients before investors.” says Kantarjian, who hopes increased push back from patients and their families will finally turn the tide. “People think cancer will not affect you, but it affects all of us.” he explains.