More than one-third of fundraising stories on the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform in the United States shared experiences of medical financial hardships and health-related social needs (HRSNs). The fundraising stories included hardships such as housing and food insecurities, transportation barriers, income loss, lack of sick leave, and disruptions to both work and school.
The analysis was led by American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers using a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Financial hardship is common among cancer survivors across the country, forcing a growing number of patients and their families to use personal crowdfunding as an alternative source to raise money, Zhiyuan “Jason” Zheng, Ph.D., senior principal scientist, health services research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study said via a statement. “These findings show the intense difficulties in meeting basic medical and social needs, underscoring the fragility of safety nets in the U.S.”
Researchers analyzed data from all cancer-related fundraising stories from January 1, 2021, to May 31, 2023, retrieved from the publicly available crowdfunding website GoFundMe. Scientists used natural language processing (NLP) modeling to examine cancer-related crowdfunding campaigns, specifically their fundraising stories about reasons for financial assistance, including medical financial hardship and HRSNs. The advances in NLP enabled researchers to transform qualitative data to quantitative data and to help perform statistical analyses.
Study results showed of 91,113 cancer-related crowdfunding campaigns were identified and more than 24 million words were analyzed. The proportions with NLP outputs for individual campaign characteristics were:
* Sex (61.1%),
* Age (19.6%);
* Marital status (5.1%):
* Family size (12.8%);
* Health insurance coverage (18.3%);
* Cancer type (79%).
Among all fundraising stories, 25.5% had data outputs for any medical financial hardship, and 24.1% had mentioned HRSNs. Overall, 35.9% of fundraiser stories had NLP outputs with any medical financial hardship or HRSNs.
“This research further highlights the drastic reality people, especially cancer patients and survivors, are increasingly facing when it comes to the high cost of health care. This reality is unacceptable,” Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) said via a statement.
“No one should have to choose between lifesaving treatment and a roof over their head. Lawmakers must take action,” the statement continued. “Elected officials can help reduce medical financial hardship by expanding Medicaid in the 10 states that have yet to do so, making permanent the ACA enhanced tax credits that make marketplace plans more affordable for more than 20 million people, and passing legislation to alleviate medical debt.”