Los Angeles Man Without Health Insurance Dies After Posting Plea On Social Media

A Los Angeles man, who suffered injuries following a motorbike accident, made a dying plea on Facebook Aug. 22 after deciding to forgo hospital treatment because he couldn't afford it. A Twitter posting from a friend confirmed that Conan Soranno, a 39-year-old photographer, died last week.

Soranno gained attention for posting an urgent request on crowd-funding website You Caring to help pay for his health care expenses — an increasingly common form of financing medical bills amid rising costs.

Soranno, who claimed to have vomited "buckets" full of blood, said he had to choose between seeking professional medical treatment or becoming homeless. With high costs for treatment, he contemplated several scenarios to ensure his survival, including selling his car to pay rent.

Soranno had reiterated that his survival is crucial because he's in serious debt, according to his crowd-funding post. He originally set his fundraiser goal to $600, which would cover his medical expenses for the month. However, he would have to increase the fundraiser goal if he couldn't sell his jeep by the end of August. Soranno's goal was later upped to $1,500, but he exceeded his goal by earning $2,605 with the help of 24 supporters.

"It seems like the stress never ends," Soranno wrote on his You Caring fundraiser page. "Even with all the help I'm still scared s— less that I can't afford my care this month and if I'm not able to sell my car this week I won't be able to afford rent."

Cases like Soranno's are quite common as crowdfunding has become a useful way to pay for medical expenses. A New York Times report profiled Norm Breyfogle, a comic book artist known for Batman, who became paralyzed after suffering from a stroke at age 54. Breyfogle was uninsured, so his brother started a You Caring page to help manage his health care needs.

NerdWallet reported in November 2016 that GoFundMe claimed that it had raised $930 million for medical campaigns since launching in 2010.

Websites like GoFund Me, GiveForward, Indiegogo and Fundly also have sections designated for health-related fundraisers. Users may have to spend money to earn money, however, since some crowd-funding websites charge fees to create a campaign, unlike You Caring. Give Forward charges a 7.9 percent fee to launch a campaign, with an additional 50 cents added on to each donator's transactions.

Out-of-pocket medical expenses can be a major financial burden. Roughly one-quarter of Americans with private health insurance have reported unaffordable premiums, deductibles, or out-of-pocket costs, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund. However, medical expenses are more unaffordable for uninsured individuals, like Soranno.

Rising health costs remain a major issue in the U.S. amid rising premiums. In June 2016, the New York Times cited a statistic by the Geisinger Health Plan that medical costs could increase in 2017 "by 7.5 percent for people buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act."

According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 20 million Americans have gained health insurance since 2010 since the implementation of the ACA. However, about 28.2 million Americans under 65 are still uninsured.

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