Last autumn, after many months of being ill, my dear friend Raleigh Holmes was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Many of you know Raleigh through her creative work in music, acting, painting and voiceover. (You can watch videos and see photographs of her creative works in the gallery to the right.)

A diagnosis of this kind forever changes the course of one’s life, but Raleigh took it in stride and with great courage. After two major surgeries and several months of treatment, she is well on her way to a happier and healthier future. However, there are challenges ahead, including extensive treatments for side effects of the surgeries, which will require months of additional painful treatments. Raleigh is grateful to have the chance to undergo fertility treatments, but as they are costly and must be paid up front and out of pocket, she cannot afford them without help.

As any of you know who have been ill in the United States, the costs for this kind of serious illness and ongoing treatment add up very quickly and can be massive. While Raleigh’s family has been helping all they can, there are extensive costs that have already accumulated, and more on the way. That is why we are asking for your help.

This is a person who always puts others’ needs before her own, who brings light into the lives of everyone she meets. She has faced cancer with extraordinary grace, and has fought relentlessly, but now needs our help to move through and beyond it. Please help in any way you can.

Thank you!

Mira Courage

TL;DR version: Raleigh had cancer and she beat it, but needs money to help pay for her treatment. You know how sucky health insurers are in the USA...

If you can help out, please do so.

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/rally-for-raleigh-/140620

Cancer is messed up but it's weird what people do these days to get money on the internet :s You would think people would have a saving for these kind of situation...
Don't understand me wrong but hasn't internet become a way of electronic "begging" with kickstarter, indiegogo etc? (just an opinion so don't attack right away)

I do wish the best for her cause I can imagine how hard it can be. My brother works as an accountant in a hospital and once a week I visit him and pass by the children who have cancer and it breaks my heart :( Luckily the health care in Belgium is one of the best in Europe and even without money you will get treatment although chemo therapy can cost a lot and most of those children have to delay their chemo's. Never knew it would cost 85000$!!! The poor bastard who has cancer and got a family to feed.

Looking at that site, it looks like trying to cater to fundraising. While I donate to worthy causes it does feel like begging.... like some of indie gogo ones for example Scott hall (ex WWF wrestler) looking for funds for needed surgery).

Medical costs are the number one cause for personal bankruptcy in the US. And it's not surprising. A single injection related to chemotherapy injection can cost thousands of dollars. Thousands. One person's cancer treatment can run in the hundreds of thousands. Not everyone can stash away $250k for medical emergencies. An artificial heart purchased in Belgium will cost one-tenth of what it will cost in the US. This doesn't include installation, surgery, etc. Just the medical device. The same medical device.

Damn guess they don't tell you this side of the "American Dream". Don't you guys have some kind of insurance policy? If you pay for private insurance, does it cover cancer etc as well?
If you don't have money in west EU countries, you still have an option to pay the bills on a monthly basis... So 85000$ can be paid over years so if you have a saving for emergencies, you still have a chance. Aren't most of the WWF superstars like millionaires? lol asking money for a surgery or making a video game is going to far. I can understand cancer but lately there are youtubers who ask for money to buy better camera's? I mean where is the world going to? Rather buy a hamburger for the homeless people who live near my streets (since the Mc Donalds in our neighbor is kind enough to throw kilo's of "cold" fries and hamburgers away than give it to the homeless).

Thanks for posting this. I remember Raleigh from Jane Jensen's Kickstarter project (I think Jane is her stepmother).

big difference crowd sourcing a game from scratch to paying for someone's personal medical bills imho.

Maybe I'm misreading this bit, I probably don't understand the full scope of what this does for her care, and I may come out looking like a complete ass:

"Raleigh is grateful to have the chance to undergo fertility treatments, but as they are costly and must be paid up front and out of pocket, she cannot afford them without help. "

I watched the video twice and can't find where she said this is to help pay for further cancer / recovery care.

From the video:

"...mostly fertility treatments, which are very important to me."

So no, I won't be contributing to fund someone's fertility treatments.



Like I said: I'm going to come out sounding like an ass, but there it is.

My family has an insurance policy with one of the top-rated providers in the US. We pay about $12k a year in premiums. Our daughter was born last year. All prenatal costs are nominally covered by our policy. Still, we were charged $400 for a 20-minute ultrasound. We later received a bill for $150 for the room in which the ultrasound took place. Despite zero irregularities and problems, we were obligated to pay these costs as they were tagged with some at-risk pregnancy nonsense, which apparently, makes it not a standard prenatal cost anymore. Despite our expensive policy, we still got dinged for $4000 for my wife's two day hospital stay. Then, of course, all necessary visits to the doctor for our children are covered. Except bloodwork is standard, and the lab sticks you for an uncovered $300. The bloodwork for my own 'covered' physical was $500.

So our policy supposedly protects us from complete disaster, limiting our yearly payments to a maximum of $8000. Of course, like above, there are many ins and outs and tricks and things you believe are covered but get renamed to something that isn't. Also, consider that there is ZERO transparency here. You cannot ask up front what a procedure will cost. Nobody knows. And even when someone offers an estimate, you can expect to get multiple frivolous bills related to the procedure on top of that figure. A surgery isn't a simple surgery. The surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the hospital, and related labs will all bill you separately and multiple times.

I consider our situation much better than what most people here have.

In 2010, the healthcare lobby gave Congress two-thirds of a billion dollars. That's much more than the huge defense lobby. Really, there can be no meaningful reform. That said, if you're lucky enough to find a doctor who is also a person, they will often step outside the system bill you very reasonably.

Please excuse my rant. I'm normally very content.

I wonder how much cheaper hospital treatment would be in America if people stopped suing doctors?

In Australia we do have public health (for the time being) but the government has been pushing the private health front quite hard for a good number of years now. Personally i think private health is useless, think about all that money wasted on lawyers while they look for technicalities voiding your cover, or why do we want to pay for fancy yachts and cars that the top notches in the private health company buy from the profits, when that money could buy medical equipment instead??

Yes i do not trust Government to do all that good a job at handling health cover, but i trust them a thousand percent more than private health cover!

In the United States, overlegislation is certainly a problem, but so is this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/health/as-hospital-costs-soar-single-stitch-tops-500.html

There was a much better 20 page article that they ran one or two years ago, but I can't seem to find it. The American "healthcare" system is an insane and illogical labyrinth.

Well they may think all the reasons are complicated, but in my view it is very simple, like i said before, the private market and the laws of supply and demand may work well for the cost of DVD players and fridges but it will never work properly for healthcare. And the government may think they cannot do it themselves all that well, ,,, ok so be it, but whatever crappy job they did, it would surly have to be better than what you have now??

I had a simple procedure that had me actually in the hospital for just under 2 days. I wouldn't have gone at all but my life was at risk. In that day and a half (give or take) they ordered extra x-rays over my objections and finally did a soft tissue scan that showed the problem, which was easily fixed with a quick endoscopy procedure. When it was clear that I was now safe from dying immediately, I was released, though informed I needed lots of medical follow-up soon that I am unlikely to get at all. I started filing for financial assistance as soon as they would let me. I knew the bill would be more than I could pay and I have no insurance. The total bill for multiple x-ray scans(over my objections, no less. If the first set didn't show the problem, then why do the same expensive thing several times before finally trying something else?) and one endoscopy procedure, cost ~ 14K, which is a lot more than we live on in a year. ..spread into over 8 separate bills - with many overlapping services.

This is seriously insane, and you know the cost is hugely inflated, they even admit it in many articles, but without a program like Medicaid or a good insurance company to intervene, there's not a thing you can do about it except try to reason with them. Seriously, what's the point of trying to gouge a very poor person in order to make up for other poor people's care? (that's the usual excuse.) It just ensures this bill can't be paid either!

For over two months I have been calling in, finding out what paperwork they wanted, then going and getting it just to prove how broke I am (which is very. I would qualify for expanded Medicaid very easily, but they keep refusing to expand it in my state of VA and Obamacare -ACA - literally failed to make provision for this situation, which is ironic because this is one of the main conditions they claimed it would fix!.) Today I get my first call from the hospital (I've been doing all the contacting aside from the bills) to tell me that they feel I should have a 40% discount, which is insane given how indigent I actually am, and they have proof of this poverty already. I asked for the supervisor and was told she was busy and would call back. Since she never did call me, I will be calling them back tomorrow, because - barring winning the lottery tonight - getting a real recognition of my situation is the best hope I have. After that, I'd have to try legal aid, politicians, media, my own begging page or some such thing. If all fails then we'll likely be the next bankruptcy statistic.

The local hospitals are expecting to get an extra 81 million dollars thrown at them very soon to help with charity cases (like mine) and offset some ACA losses. Won't go as far as it should they way they bill. Interestingly this same hospital has just opened even more beautiful fancy-looking buildings/facilities while claiming they can't help as many poor people because they have so little money.

Now this experience is much worse than most medical systems we've dealt with. The hospital that did most of my spouse's many surgeries (he's now disabled) is hours away, which is why we didn't go there again. They have their own problems, but they do have simpler billing. The first time he was referred there the Financial Aid office was dangerously slow to complete the approval process, in fact he came very close to dying while they dragged it out. They also have this bad habit of starting the 'clock' on filing for assistance when you are a new in-patient on tons of meds and still in ICU- BUT they (eventually) not only recognized our situation 100% until he got his Medicare but 'officially' said we both had their in-hospital charity coverage (to come back whenever necessary) for one year. I had trouble getting their program to do much for me in actual practice, though they did do one check-up with some blood-work and claimed I was doing great, which seemed unlikely given all the stress I was under trying to keep my husband alive. That was years ago and it was the last real check-up I had, such as it was.

I finally found out where they moved the free clinic for my county from a lady in the hospital, so I can try there for follow-up soon, presuming they will accept my paperwork, which is never certain around here. I thought they had closed for good.

No, America can be a tough country to be in for medical care when you are poor. I have trouble believing that a version UK or Canadian systems would be worse than what we've already seen.

Not much. The reason for the costs being what they are is primarily a combination of paying for uninsured people that can't pay and deferred health care.

Suing doctors factors into it, but in most cases that money winds up going back into the system to pay for treatments related to the malpractice.

As much attention as the settlements and suits get, malpractice insurance usually covers the cost and it's not yet high enough to be resulting in the sort of rate increases we've been seeing. As in 10-20% per annum.

my personal and direct experience of them tells me they've spent it on drugs - pharmecutical or recreational - along with all the other trappings of fame and ego.