There are websites out there where people can either have people donate money to them personally for any cause that doesn’t have to be paid back or sites for loans to people, all community based. What I would like to do is build a website based on this premise, except strictly to pay off medical dental bills for people and animals that the person can’t afford to pay off on their own. It would all be done anonymously, people would just detail how much the medical, dental or vet bill was and people would anonymously donate money until the bill is paid off to the hospital in full. To do it anonymously would allow the recipient their privacy and not let the donor have any preconceived ideas about the person or help only those they like the look of more than another person or whose story they prefer more. This way it would be completely fair to everyone. The website would simply be the intermediary where people would post their billing information and the hospital they used. No personal information about the patient would be seen by the donor and no credit card or payment information would be seen about the donor by the patient and none of it would be stored on the website and NO MONEY would go to the website or the owner of the site. The reason I want to set this up is because we all know how flawed the insurance system is and that too many people in America have trouble paying off the exorbitant costs, especially in an economy where so many have been laid off. Until the healthcare/insurance system is fixed, if ever, this is our way of circumventing the system. Americans have always been good at finding a way over hurdles and have been compassionate to those in need, so this could help people get back on their feet and take one huge worry off of their minds. $1 doesn’t sound like much, but it is when 1 million people give just a dollar each to a cause. We could work together to solve our own problems and help ourselves.
How I can fulfill this on my list: Well, this is a biggie. It involves contacting hospitals to find out what patients have trouble paying their medical bills WITHOUT invading anyone’s privacy or violating any HIPAA laws. Hospital administrators and insurance companies would need to be willing to work to help to get patients’ bills paid off in this way. This is truly a grassroots approach to the insurance problem in the U.S.
