(no subject)

Gofundme.com is a crowdfunding site, like Kickstarter but without a promised project. It basically allows a person to go a-begging for anything they want and friends and strangers can chip in. People are fundraising for vacations, for school, for mortgage payments--and many, many people are fundraising for medical care. I imagine this is something that's strange to our friends in Europe and Canada. For instance, on my FB feed today a fellow popped up from the local arts community who needs a new liver. He had a persistent infection that required some strong meds, and the meds destroyed the liver he was born with. They won't give him a new liver unless he shows that he's able to pay for appropriate care following the transplant--so, off to the Web to ask for money.

People used to turn to churches for this sort of thing so I suppose it's not all that new. But the fact that people are asking for charity from total strangers on such a massive scale is relatively novel, at least in this country. We've changed as a culture such that we're comfortable asking for help from Earth, and for some reason this is easier to swallow than single-payer health care.

I doubt that healthcare will be repaired in this country, even with the changes coming in 2014.