A 7-year-old raising funds for her own brain surgeries has sparked a national conversation about the failures of the U.S. healthcare system. Liza Scott is selling lemonade at her single mom’s Alabama bakery in the hopes of being able to afford three surgeries to stop her grand mal seizures.
Scott began having seizures in January, her mom, Elizabeth Scott, writes on their online fundraising page. Neurologists at the children’s hospital in Birmingham determined the little girl has “multiple cerebral malformations” and requires at least three corrective surgeries to prevent more violent seizures, the possibility of a brain hemorrhage or a potential stroke.
Scott’s mother owns a successful bakery and purchased additional health insurance to help cover the costs of the surgeries, but that likely won’t be enough. The surgeries will take place in Boston, and the family is already looking at having to pay thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs for their first trip.
“As with any medical journey, the overwhelming additional expenses, time away from work, and additional resources needed to keep up with things at home is already piling up,” the mom explains. “The next year will require a tremendous commitment of our family, our business, and anyone who is willing to join in this journey with us. As a single mom to two amazing gifts from God, it is taking a village to care for Liza, my 3-year-old little boy, Finnley, our puppy Millie, and our home.”
The Scotts set a $25,000 fundraising goal, which has already been met and exceeded since their story went viral, but the fact that a 7-year-old child and her family had to worry at all about being able to pay for potentially life-saving surgery has many people furious.
“This is so evil. This is so shameful,” one person writes on Twitter. “The richest country in the history of the world, and we force a child to fundraise for her life saving surgery? We are sick. Capitalism is sick.”
“A 7-year-old girl is selling lemonade for brain surgery. Yet in the same society we have billionaires,” another person adds. “Billionaires should not exist in a society where a 7-year-old child has to sell lemonade for surgery! This [is] not some cute story. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!”
The Scotts are hardly the first family who’ve had to rely on crowdfunding in order to avoid financial ruin during a medical crisis. Stories like these are everywhere, and they’re often framed as “feel good” pieces that show the kindness and perseverance of everyday Americans. In reality, they expose the troubling reality that American families are struggling, and leaders aren’t taking the necessary steps to ensure people have access to the resources and medical care they desperately need.
GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon told CBS News in 2019 that one-third of donations made through the website go towards medical fundraisers. A 2020 report by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found one in five Americans have contributed to a crowdfunding campaign to pay for medical bills or treatments, and an estimated eight million Americans have started a crowdfunding campaign to cover medical expenses for themselves or a family member.
Meanwhile, health care costs continue to climb. Among 156 million Americans who get health insurance through their employers, one in five have deductibles of more than $3,000 for individuals and $5,000 for families, according to a 2019 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Times. Researchers also say that between 2008 and 2018, premiums for employer-sponsored insurance plans increased 55%, which is twice as fast as workers’ earnings during the same time period.
The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have universal health coverage for all of its citizens, and we see the impact our current health care system has every day when we read stories like Liza Scott’s. While the optimism and entrepreneurial spirit of people like Scott is admirable, her story also points to the unnecessary stress, struggle and financial strain that haunts far too many families who face medical crises.
Three brain surgeries is a big enough challenge for one family to face. They shouldn’t have to worry about selling thousands of cups of lemonade or catching the attention of generous online strangers in order to be able to pay for it.
