The Causes and Consequences of Medical Crowdfunding

In 2020, an estimated 20 million Americans started an online fundraising campaign to cover the cost of healthcare. In this paper, we study the causes and consequences of medical crowdfunding using data from GoFundMe, one of the largest online fundraising platform. First, we show that medical crowdfunding is primarily driven by lack of health insurance coverage. We show that the ACA Medicaid expansion had a statistically meaningful effect in reducing the demand for crowdfunded medical care. Next, we show that the growth of medical crowdfunding can exacerbate group-level inequality by reinforcing existing disparities in health access. Specifically, we document that GoFundMe campaigns organized by individuals with distinctively African-American or Hispanic surnames and first-names are significantly less likely to meet their fundraising target and raise less funds overall than those organized by individuals with neutral or distinctively White names. We conclude by investigating the channels underlying these racial disparities in crowdfunding success