Getting sick is expensive

In 2018, while dealing with a form of encephalopathy that was very similar to dementia, often called alcoholic’s dementia, I was fired from my job and lost everything. I am not alone in this struggle. The goal of this organization is to raise money to help working class families try to hold on to the things they have worked so hard for.

Our Mission:

We started this 501c3 as a means of raising money to help people cover medical expenses that insurance doesn’t cover. Medical insurance companies are constantly finding new ways to increase profits.

From the Securities and Exchange Commission, United Healthcare received $400b in income

Revenues of $400.3 Billion Grew 8% Year-Over-Year

•Domestic Consumers Served by UnitedHealthcare Grew 2.1 Million

•Value-Based Care Patients Served by Optum Grew 600,000

•Cash Flows from Operations were $24.2 Billion or 1.6x Net Income

Earnings from Operations in 2024 $15.6b

In 2024 United Healthcare had discussed using AI to auto reject patients claims so they didn’t have to pay an employee to review and reject claims. Although United Healthcare has been in the news the most often, they are not the only health insurance company looking to deny patients coverage to increase profits.

The simple math is, as the insurance companies cover less, sick people pay more. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a non profit hospital system based here in Cleveland, announced denying patience care for a number of visits unless they can pay the out of pocket expenses up front.

Sustainability:

Every charitable organization relies on the kindness and generosity of lots of people and businesses that care.

The small group of us here at FU Cancer are all volunteering our time and donating ourselves and our own money to this cause. We are all currently dealing with medical issues and medical expenses of our own and care very much about helping others with this struggle. It’s passion and compassion and real concern. This isn’t something that we are able to just walk away from.

Where We Differ:

All charities start from a place of passion with the goal of helping those in need. A friend has an awesome charity called The Sub Zero Mission where they head out onto the streets and help people living without stable food or shelter get healthy food and warm clothes, and experience compassion and human connection.

These efforts are amazing, the people involved even more so. Every legit charity does amazing things for people in need. What we are attempting to do is keep people from losing everything, or filing bankruptcy due to out of pocket medical expenses.

Once I lost my job and watched my cars get repossessed, started rationing my life saving medication to every other day because I couldn’t survive not taking it all, disability kicked in and covered my medical expenses. I couldn’t find help to prevent that from happening, to keep me from losing everything and selling my possessions on eBay.

We want to be that help. We want to be the thing that stops people from selling their video games at local shop to buy meds.