Aiden McCarthy, a two-year-old boy, lost his parents. They died in a shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, during American independence celebrations.
Aidan will grow up an orphan, but he’s not alone. More than 50,000 people donated money to his family in a virtual campaign. In just a few days, they raised US$ 3 million (R$ 16 million), in an example of the exceptional solidarity in the USA, a country where people donate fortunes to help strangers – the largest amount in Aiden’s case was, so far, US$ $ 18 thousand (R$ 95 thousand).
The millions raised are the price that the country has to pay because Congress — in spite of the will of the majority of the population — refuses to make access to weapons difficult, enabling shootings like the one this week. In addition to Aiden’s parents, five other people died in the city outside Chicago.
The family donated on the GoFundMe website. The company, created in 2010, says it has received more than 200 million donations in its history, totaling US$ 15 billion (R$ 80 billion). It was also on this site that 120,000 Americans donated $8 million to victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which killed 49 in 2016.
But the campaigns go beyond trying to mitigate gun proliferation and urban violence. Cows are also common to pay higher education costs. A year at an elite university like Harvard costs around US$80,000. Student debt now stands at a record US$ 1.7 trillion (R$ 9 trillion). It is the second largest, behind mortgages.
A third of the funds raised through GoFundMe went to pay for medical treatment and other expenses caused by illness. The United States does not have a universal public healthcare system, and hospital bills, visits and medication can lead to bankruptcy. It is yet another case of a State so lean that, at times, it ends up transferring its obligations to its citizens.
Most Americans have health insurance through their employer, not the government. Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Research on Health Policy at George Washington University, recalls that the country has robust public programs to help those without insurance, such as Medicare (for the elderly and some cases of disability) and Medicaid (for those have low income).
“But sometimes these programs can be too slow and sometimes people don’t meet all the requirements and are helpless. That’s where things like GoFundMe come into play. I wish we could do more, but it’s important to have these tools to fill in the gaps.” .”
The problem is that not all gaps are filled. To use such a platform, people need to have access to the internet and know how to use it. “It’s not a systemic solution,” says Susan Cahn of NORC (University of Chicago-affiliated National Opinion Research Center). “Americans are willing to help when health care is not accessible. There is a will and a custom, but people also see this problem as an issue for the government to resolve.”
According to a December 2020 NORC survey, nearly one-fifth of American households donated to fundraisers for medical costs during that year. The study also shows that nearly 60% of respondents say they believe the government has a “huge” or “great” responsibility to provide cheap or free health care to those who cannot afford it.
Like the healthcare system, access to platforms like GoFundMe is not equal. “People with a greater presence on social networks are more likely to attract attention to their campaigns”, says researcher Mollie Hertel, who signs the studies with Cahn.
Those who live in lower-income areas tend to collect less on the internet as well. So, Cahn suggests, virtual campaigns are important and help some people in need — but they can also end up exacerbating public health inequalities rather than solving them.
