Utah Desert News: "Signs of the times: Fundraisers for medical care."

[TomCADem]

I know George Bush and Mitch McConnell have proudly declared that the U.S. has the best healthcare system in the world. Yet, you would think that in our nation, families should not have to struggle to get basic healthcare to simply stay alive.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705317428/Signs-of-the-times-Fundraisers-for-medical-care.html

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An elementary school teacher's aide and a soon-to-be first-grader have become Utah's latest entrants into a growing national phenomenon fueled by skyrocketing medical costs and a lack of health insurance.

As contestants in an untelevised reality show no one signs up to audition for, they're medical "fundraisees."

Their faces and truncated stories will appear on posters, T-shirts, personal blogs and community calendar event boards as friends and family members try desperately to raise money.

Why? Because 24-year-old Britney Graham was diagnosed with leukemia in May, and 6-year-old Elizabeth Loop continues to fight a two-year battle with aplastic anemia. With health insurance either non-existent or limited, family and friends have joined the ranks of amateur fundraisers who will play out their roles as they pray for a good turnout on Saturday.

For Britney, a teacher's aide at Heartland Elementary, it's a 5K fun run and silent auction in South Jordan. For Elizabeth, whose list of "favorite things to do" fills two single-spaced pages, it's a daylong yard sale at her family's east-side church.

Though the two don't know each other, they're members of a new social category spawned early in a new millennium; beneficiaries of the kind of love and kindness many Americans are increasingly turning to in order to help finance costly, lifesaving medical procedures.

Sadly, their numbers are soaring along with the number of Americans either losing their jobs and/or their health insurance or finding that it just won't pay the bills. Particularly during summer weekends, it's now become commonplace both in Utah and nationwide to encounter these labors of love — bake sales, concerts, 5Ks, car washes, yard sales — in communities of all sizes.

Both Britney and Elizabeth are on the front lines of two war zones — medical and financial. One threatens their very lives. The other threatens their financial futures. Many wonder how they can fight both wars at once — and pray they won't be recruited themselves by a devastating diagnosis hiding on the horizon

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[marshall]

1. These fund raisers have been around as long as I can remember

Kids with leukemia, teenagers who need transplants, young adults who have been in a car accident. I've seen bake sales, t shirt sales, walkathons, and every other kind of fundraiser imaginable.

[Common Sense Party]

3. Yep, me too.

Perhaps there are more of them today, I don't know.

[Common Sense Party]

2. Not really anything new, what's new is the scale.

I've seen cans raising money for Johnny with Leukemia, etc., for 20 or 30 years at the counter of the gas station. Another thing that may be different is the use of social networking sites. It was done here for Andy.

BTW -- it's "Deseret"

[TomCADem]

4. The Fact That We Take Such Fundraisers For Granted Is Disturbing And Yes

I do think that medical costs are becoming more and more difficult for families to shoulder. If per capita healthcare costs have continued to skyrocket, then someone has to pay those expenses. That someone is us in terms of (1) higher premiums and (2) higher deductibles.

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[Common Sense Party]

5. It's also our employers who pay a huge part of the cost of the

plan. Most people would be floored if they knew how much the employer was absorbing. And that's money that won't be paid to workers in raises or bonuses, because it's going into rapidly increasing benefits costs.

[TomCADem]

6. True, Household Median Income Is Stagnant During Bush Years, While Premiums Rose

Real median household income essentially stayed flat under Bush, yet per capita healthcare costs dramatically grew. What this means is that a greater portion of household income went to cover healthcare costs, which depressed any real growth in income. What would be interesting is to see how real median household income looks if you add in the value of healthcare plan coverage as part of compensation, rather than just looking at income. For example, General Motors spends $71 per worker per hour on health care costs.

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