Parents and guardians are delaying or skipping medical treatment
Because of the monetary costs, many parents and guardians are reluctantly choosing to skip or delay medical and dental treatment for their children. A problem might go away on its own, but often not.
Let’s help eliminate reasons a guardian might not seek treatment for a child.
Politics getting in the way?
A lasting, viable political solution to health care payments, affordability and insurance still seems to be uncertain. So an idea came from a 10th grade high school student … just another kid. The CareForKids fund has evolved from there. That high school student is currently in college at U.C. Berkeley.
Protest is important and a right in America and helpful to draw attention to problems. But at the same time, why not direct all of those people, energy and resources to solve the problem directly? Just do it!
No executive salaries. All volunteer.
A real world example
“I’m in an oral surgeon’s office with my child for a preventative wisdom tooth extraction. Not inexpensive, but the tooth in question is causing discomfort, interfering with school work, and the condition will likely get worse. It certainly won’t improve on it’s own. The procedure is not inexpensive, but the patient (a kid) is in pain!
At the same time, in walks another parent and child. About the same age as mine. The child is noticeably in pain. I can hear the guardian at the front desk discussing the costs.
The guardian and the patient almost walked out – because of the money needed.
It was also clear that the condition had been left untreated for some time – because of the cost – and was now serious as a result.
The bill to the guardian was going to be $800. If there were 40 of us sitting in the waiting room, we all would have chipped in 20 bucks to get the kid treated”
“High healthcare costs prevented or delayed care for 46% of respondents, and 42% said they had difficulties paying their medical bills or debt.”
Commonwealth Fund survey, 09/2022
A resource to help
Simply put, the Fund, organized as a non-profit, will receive donations and pay medical bills and related travel expenses for patients. We expect to start small and maybe even stay small.
Think of this funding source as the last after all other sources of payment have been exhausted. CareForKids will step in. There hopefully will be no financial barriers, not even a small co-payment, to seeking treatment. Medical or dental.
If you represent a corporation, please contact us by email or phone to arrange a meeting to discuss how we can work together.
Are payment issues getting in the way of health care for children?
Let’s do something about it! Small dollar donations are welcome and encouraged.
How would you like to help?
Questions, comments, suggestions?
Please pass the word. Thanks.
Contact us / 800 – Five35 – 7524
No executive salaries
All volunteer.
How will the fund work?
A provider can accept cash, check, credit card, insurance, AND Care For Kids.
Faced with a payment gap for any number of reasons, licensed health care providers can submit an invoice to Care For Kids to help fill the gap.
No patient confidential info is transmitted, only an invoice with a number that the provider can use to track back to their original charges for service.
The current plan for the Fund addresses children 21 and under.
If donors want to make larger contributions and take the related tax deduction, we will organize the Fund as a 501(c)(3) with minimal overhead and administrative expenses. All executive positions will filled by volunteers in a virtual office and there is no overhead of any consequence.
What about adults?
Our suggestion is that expensive, non-discretionary medical episodes be paid for in the same way as natural disasters. The bills go to FEMA for example.
It is hard to argue with “no fault of their own”, so for now our Fund is concerned with children, but we can expand the pool later.
How will the payments to providers be audited?
That’s up to our donors and Board of Directors. Generally speaking, if the provider is licensed, we will pay them. It not up to us to decide who is worth or not.
Is this crowd-funding?
To an extent, but one major difference is the patient does not initiate a funding request. Patients remain anonymous. No “charity cases” and possible stigmatization.
Let’s eliminate any reasons a guardian might not seek treatment for a child.
Our sponsor
Our sponsor has been developing commercial Practice Management and Electronic Medical Record for general medical and dental practices for the past 30+ years. In addition, custom applications for niche practices such as orthodontics and endodontics.