A popular platform closed the page where an 81-year-old Texas man raised cancer treatment costs for his wife. The page has raised approximately US$ 281,000 (about US$ 2 million) before being shut down. The incident once again pushed to the public ' s attention the issue of the public-interested border between the vetting mechanism of the individual medical platform.
According to various media reports, the old man, Donald Johnson, is from Texas and his wife is receiving cancer treatment. He himself refused to stop working because of his wife ' s condition, and sought help from strangers through a popular platform. There are reports that he was seen in a suitcase... This image has generated widespread attention following the spread of social networks, and the fund-raising page has quickly received contributions from a large number of strangers.
However, after raising some US$ 281,000, GoFundme went down on the page. This information was confirmed by several news agencies, but no specific reasons for the closure given by the Platform have been detailed in the reports to date. GoFundme has yet to issue a public detailed account of the incident.
Founded in 2010, GoFundMe, based in Santiago, California, is the world ' s largest individual platform. Since it went online, the platform has processed over $40 billion (approximately 28.8 billion yuan) in contributions from more than 190 million donors, covering 190 countries.
In the business model, GoFundme cancelled 5 per cent of the platform fees for individual fund-raising projects in 2017, relying instead on the voluntary tip paid by donors to sustain operations. In addition, the costs of processing remain to be borne by donors, with the United States region estimated at 2.9 per cent plus $0.30 per contribution. This means that the sponsors do not themselves have to pay any prior fees or charges for platform services.
In the field of medical mobilisation, GoFundme claims to be the "leader" of online medical fund-raising. According to Platform data, one out of every three fund-raising projects is spent on medical care, with approximately 250,000 health-care fund-raising projects annually, receiving a total of approximately $650 million (approximately 470 million yuan). The platform's CEO Rob Solomon had publicly stated that GoFundme was not intended to be a substitute for health insurance or a medical company, but that it had long been used to address the most pressing health-care costs, reflecting serious deficiencies in the United States health-care system.
This closure is not an isolated case. The role of the platform in the area of personal medical financing has been controversial. On the one hand, these platforms provide an important source of funding for families whose health insurance does not cover the full cost; on the other hand, the Platform ' s criteria for auditing fund-raising projects, transparency in the use of funds and openness to closure mechanisms have been the focus of public attention.
For older people like Donald Johnson, who are forced to continue working because of severe family illness and who are seeking help from the public, the platform is both life-saving and accompanied by uncertainty — the fund-raising page may have been reviewed and put down for various reasons, when donors have already paid off, and the eventual destination and return of funds is a matter of concern.
In addition, studies indicate that deficiencies in the United States health system are the root cause of the flourishing of individual health care. When basic health insurance does not cover the cost of treatment for major diseases, ordinary families rely on social contributions to fill the gap. This structural problem is not something that can be solved by a popular platform, but the responsibility of the platform to review and disclose information in it is increasingly being looked at.
At the moment, no information has been made available on this cut-off funding option - • The question of how the $281 million raised would be disposed of, whether donors could apply for refunds and whether recipients were entitled to continue using the funds received was still pending a clear response from Goddme.
For families with similar medical fund-raising needs, the incident raised a number of points for attention: The Platform ' s fund-raising rules and auditing standards should be carefully read before fund-raising is initiated to ensure that the information provided is accurate and complete; all communication records and fund-raising vouchers should be kept in the process; at the same time, crowd funding should not be seen as the only funding solution, and other possible funding channels, such as health policy, charitable assistance projects, should be kept in sync.
The event also tested the credibility of GoFundMe as a platform. In a context of increasing reliance on goodwill and trust for public contributions, how the Platform balances efficiency with user interests and how disputes can be handled transparently will have a direct impact on its long-term reputation and user adhesion. At present, none of the parties concerned has made further statements on follow-up.