Crowdfunding Medical Care: A Comparison of Online Medical Fundraising in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

AbstractBackgroundMedical crowdfunding is increasingly used to finance personal healthcare costs in Canada (CAN), United Kingdom (UK), and United States (US) despite major differences in their healthcare systems. Yet, it lacks comparative descriptive research to guide policy changes that can promote equitable and accessible healthcare.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis of Canadian, British, and American campaigns between February 2018 and March 2019 on the GoFundMe platform (n=3,396). We extracted and manually reviewed variables from campaigns on each country’s GoFundMe discovery webpage, explored campaign characteristics, and compared each country’s campaign demographics to its respective national census. We fit multivariate linear regression models for funds raised for the cohort and for each country.ResultsWe examined 1,091 Canadian, 1,082 British, and 1,223 American campaigns. US campaigns (median [IQR] $38,204 [$31,200 to $52,123]) raised more funds than those in CAN ($12,662 [$9,377 to $19,251]) and the UK ($6,285 [$4,028 to $12,348]). Female (38.4% of campaigns vs. 50.9% of US census; p<0.001) and black (5.3% of campaigns vs. 13.4% of US census; p<0.001) beneficiaries were underrepresented in US campaigns. In the full cohort, blacks raised $4,007 less (95% confidence interval [CI] -$6,913 to -$1,101; p=0.007) and males raised $1,742 more (95% CI $583 to $2,901; p=0.003) per campaign. Cancer was the most common diagnosis represented overall (54.5%). Across all diagnoses, campaigns primarily for routine treatment expenses were three times more common in the United States compared to Canada and the United Kingdom (CAN 21.9% vs. UK 26.6% vs. US 77.9%; p<0.001). However, campaigns with routine care were less successful overall, raising $4,589 less per campaign (CI -$6,429 to - $2,749; p<0.001). Campaigns primarily for alternative treatment expenses were nearly five times as common for cancer (24%) than for non-cancer (5%) diagnoses.DiscussionThe trends observed suggest that there are important gaps in healthcare provision in all of the countries examined across a wide range of diagnoses. Although medical crowdfunding has the potential to provide short-term relief from medical financial burden for a privileged subset of patients, it may carry wider-reaching adverse societal effects including the promotion of racial and gender disparities in healthcare. Further work is needed to inform policy changes that promote equitable and accessible healthcare through this practice.FundingNone.

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Adjustment to Stagflation and Neoliberal Reforms in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Comparative Political Studies ◽

10.1177/0010414098031005003 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 602-632 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

NOBUHIRO HIWATARI

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

The United States ◽

Party Competition ◽

Policy Changes ◽

State Institutions ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Neoliberal Reforms ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Ruling Party

This article explains why the stagflation and neoliberal reforms that reinforced party polarization in the United Kingdom and the United States instead led to party convergence in Japan. In Japan, industry-centered adjustment and bureaucratic coordination distributed the costs of policy changes across societal groups and facilitated party convergence, whereas the lack of such societal and state institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States led to policy changes with polarizing consequences. Focusing on industry-centered adjustment brings the unions back into Japanese politics and provides an alternative to the pluralism-neocorporatism dichotomy of organizing societal interests. Bureaucratic coordination not only includes the opposition in the framework but also provides a more nuanced view than is assumed in the debate over whether the ruling party of the bureaucracy dominates the Japanese state. When combined, these conceptualizations of market and state go a long way toward explaining the dynamics of party competition.

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Discretionary Tax Changes and the Macroeconomy: New Narrative Evidence from the United Kingdom

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.103.4.1507 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 103 (4) ◽

pp. 1507-1528 ◽

Cited By ~ 74

Author(s):

James Cloyne

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

The United States ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Narrative Strategy ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Macroeconomic Effects ◽

The Uk ◽

Tax Changes ◽

Strategy I

This paper provides new estimates of the macroeconomic effects of tax changes using a new narrative dataset for the United Kingdom. Identification is achieved by isolating “exogenous” tax policy changes using the Romer and Romer narrative strategy. I find that a 1 percent cut in taxes increases GDP by 0.6 percent on impact and 2.5 percent over three years. The findings are remarkably similar to Romer and Romer narrative estimates for the United States, reinforcing the view that tax changes have powerful and persistent effects. “Exogenous” tax changes are also shown to have contributed to important episodes in the UK business cycle. (JEL E23, E32, E62, H20, H61)

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Institutional Mechanism to Ensure National Security in the Information Space of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation

Przegląd Strategiczny ◽

10.14746/ps.2020.1.16 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 265-279

Author(s):

Sergii Bondarenko ◽

Tetyana Nagornyak ◽

Mykola Polovyi

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

National Security ◽

Russian Federation ◽

The United States ◽

Information Policy ◽

Information Space ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Russian Federation

The paper is devoted to an analysis of the institutional mechanisms that ensure national security in the information space of several leading countries – the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation. It is stated that institutional mechanisms that ensure national security in the information space of the leading countries all have a similar structure. The main components of these mechanisms involve public authorities (state leaders – president or prime minister, government, ministries, and agencies), local government bodies, civil society institutions, the academic community, business community, and the media. The gradual expansion of the system of institutions that ensure national security in the information space and increase in their powers occurs in all these states. The analysis also demonstrates the paradigm shifts in the development and implementation of US and UK information policy in the context of modern nonlinear processes. Paradigmatic shifts are currently being reoriented towards the interests and needs of target audiences, diversification of channels and mechanisms of the distribution of meaning (strategic narratives) in the information space, from vertical to horizontal interaction with internal and external audiences. Emphases are shifting to the involvement of a wide range of institutions and other stakeholders in the implementation of information policy and delegation of powers from the center to the periphery, while preserving the main parameters of the policy established by state structures.

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The Market Valuation Of Earnings In Germany, The United Kingdom And The United States

International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) ◽

10.19030/iber.v6i7.3382 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 6 (7) ◽

Author(s):

Mark Myring ◽

Rebecca Toppe Shortridge ◽

William Wrege ◽

Adlai Chester

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

The United States ◽

Forecast Errors ◽

Earnings Expectations ◽

Unexpected Earnings ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Wide Range ◽

Earnings Releases

This paper examines a short-term market reaction to unexpected earnings in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. The results indicate that all three markets react quickly to earnings releases. Further, when changes in analysts forecasts are used as an indication of updated earnings expectations, all three markets respond as well. Thus, it appears that investors in both countries react to the release of unexpected earnings in a similar manner. We also examine the incremental explanatory power of analysts forecast errors over the change in earnings per share. As all three countries have well developed stock markets, investors are likely to formulate earnings expectations based on a wide range of financial and non-financial information, including analysts forecasts. Regression results indicate that in Germany, the UK and the US, both analysts' forecasts and earnings announcements are jointly associated with market returns suggesting that the analysts provide information incremental to that provided in earnings releases.

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