How can I donate to help a family in need with medical expenses without someone "abusing" the system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask someone you've gotten to know at the hospital for a personal referral to a needy family and make the donation directly. There must be a nurse or a social worker there that could tell you.

I don't think what you are specifying is "too many strings attached." Good luck, OP.

OP here. Thank you. This may be a way to go. I would assume we would need to do it anonymously. I would not want people to start contacting us after requesting the same. We are not wealthy. We just feel like for once we were extremely fortunate with the care our child got, so we need to pass it on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people set up family foundations, which allow you to donate to individuals you vet. As I recall, this is what Warren Buffet's sister did--donations to individuals in need whom she personally vetted.

Good for her. This is awesome.

[Anonymous]

[snarky remark redacted]

OP, many non profit organizations will allow you to do a directed or pass through donation. So if you found a non-profit that supports families with high medical debt, you could tell them that you want to make a gift of 10k (or whatever amount) to a family with high medical debt and no other means of relief. I work for an org that supports low income students who are applying to college and we sometimes accept pass through donations that help a specific student. The org may ask that you pay a small administrative fee to cover the extra work. We don't but we should because it's a pain and does require quite a bit of staff time to identify an appropriate candidate within the donor's restrictions and then deal with the bookkeeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people set up family foundations, which allow you to donate to individuals you vet. As I recall, this is what Warren Buffet's sister did--donations to individuals in need whom she personally vetted.

Good for her. This is awesome.[/quote

In her obituary, the NYT dubbed Doris Buffet's approach "retail philanthropy." Warren was full of admiration for his sister's work.

[Anonymous]

You’re going to give your hard-earned money to a hospital for debt that is immoral in the first place? The hospital could and should just cancel it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In honor of outstanding care we received from a hospital, I would like to donate to help a family or families truly in need, pay medical bills. I will ask what options they offer. Here is my issue. I would like it to help those from undeserved minority groups. Through the special needs community (our child with medical issues also has SN), we know of 2 large families from wealth that have no issue taking advantage of these types of services. In both cases, based on the father's salary and family size, they qualify as low income. In both cases, the grandparents are extremely wealthy and give generous donations the families including purchasing their homes. They still qualify for all sorts of low income benefits including getting free tuition at a preschool through a program set up for low income families and in one case accessing a program that helped them pay medical fees for one of their kids. One family even accessed welfare benefits while the husband was in grad school.

I want to give back and help those truly in need and somehow weed out those who know how to play the system while getting handouts from wealthy mom and dad. Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, I will just donate to research or go another route. I cannot stand the idea of wealthy people taking money earmarked for those truly struggling.

Don't get me started on how many Mormon families in Utah sign up for Medicaid due to family size/income, or while a parent is in school (because they choose to marry young and start having kids without the financial footing to support a family, despite overwhelmingly voting for a political party that opposes the social safety net--since 2000, Utah has voted Democratic 0% of the time and Republican 100% of the time for President, for example, even overwhelming supporting Trump). A quarter of mothers in Utah giving birth have coverage through Medicaid.

I honestly don’t see the hypocrisy in this. Even if they think they should pay less tax and not be able to have those programs, they *will* likely pay it back given Utahn median salaries. They’d rather not have that arrangement, but it is what it is.

It's not hypocritical to use a benefit and also support national candidates who vote in Congress to reduce access to those same benefits for other people?

The definition of hypocrisy:
noun: hypocrisy; plural noun: hypocrisies
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In honor of outstanding care we received from a hospital, I would like to donate to help a family or families truly in need, pay medical bills. I will ask what options they offer. Here is my issue. I would like it to help those from undeserved minority groups. Through the special needs community (our child with medical issues also has SN), we know of 2 large families from wealth that have no issue taking advantage of these types of services. In both cases, based on the father's salary and family size, they qualify as low income. In both cases, the grandparents are extremely wealthy and give generous donations the families including purchasing their homes. They still qualify for all sorts of low income benefits including getting free tuition at a preschool through a program set up for low income families and in one case accessing a program that helped them pay medical fees for one of their kids. One family even accessed welfare benefits while the husband was in grad school.

I want to give back and help those truly in need and somehow weed out those who know how to play the system while getting handouts from wealthy mom and dad. Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, I will just donate to research or go another route. I cannot stand the idea of wealthy people taking money earmarked for those truly struggling.

Don't get me started on how many Mormon families in Utah sign up for Medicaid due to family size/income, or while a parent is in school (because they choose to marry young and start having kids without the financial footing to support a family, despite overwhelmingly voting for a political party that opposes the social safety net--since 2000, Utah has voted Democratic 0% of the time and Republican 100% of the time for President, for example, even overwhelming supporting Trump). A quarter of mothers in Utah giving birth have coverage through Medicaid.

I honestly don’t see the hypocrisy in this. Even if they think they should pay less tax and not be able to have those programs, they *will* likely pay it back given Utahn median salaries. They’d rather not have that arrangement, but it is what it is.

It's not hypocritical to use a benefit and also support national candidates who vote in Congress to reduce access to those same benefits for other people?

The definition of hypocrisy:
noun: hypocrisy; plural noun: hypocrisies
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

Actually, this isn't just a Republican thing. The rich Democrats I know actively seek out every legal loophole available to avoid taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In honor of outstanding care we received from a hospital, I would like to donate to help a family or families truly in need, pay medical bills. I will ask what options they offer. Here is my issue. I would like it to help those from undeserved minority groups. Through the special needs community (our child with medical issues also has SN), we know of 2 large families from wealth that have no issue taking advantage of these types of services. In both cases, based on the father's salary and family size, they qualify as low income. In both cases, the grandparents are extremely wealthy and give generous donations the families including purchasing their homes. They still qualify for all sorts of low income benefits including getting free tuition at a preschool through a program set up for low income families and in one case accessing a program that helped them pay medical fees for one of their kids. One family even accessed welfare benefits while the husband was in grad school.

I want to give back and help those truly in need and somehow weed out those who know how to play the system while getting handouts from wealthy mom and dad. Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, I will just donate to research or go another route. I cannot stand the idea of wealthy people taking money earmarked for those truly struggling.

Don't get me started on how many Mormon families in Utah sign up for Medicaid due to family size/income, or while a parent is in school (because they choose to marry young and start having kids without the financial footing to support a family, despite overwhelmingly voting for a political party that opposes the social safety net--since 2000, Utah has voted Democratic 0% of the time and Republican 100% of the time for President, for example, even overwhelming supporting Trump). A quarter of mothers in Utah giving birth have coverage through Medicaid.

I honestly don’t see the hypocrisy in this. Even if they think they should pay less tax and not be able to have those programs, they *will* likely pay it back given Utahn median salaries. They’d rather not have that arrangement, but it is what it is.

It's not hypocritical to use a benefit and also support national candidates who vote in Congress to reduce access to those same benefits for other people?

The definition of hypocrisy:
noun: hypocrisy; plural noun: hypocrisies
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

Actually, this isn't just a Republican thing. The rich Democrats I know actively seek out every legal loophole available to avoid taxes.

1) This thread talked about people who have access to family wealth choosing to use assistance intended for persons who are low-income, which deprives persons who do not have access to family assistance of that charitable assistance as well.
2) Corollary raised, which is people who avail themselves of public assistance supporting elected officials whose political platforms seek to reduce the availability of public assistance for other people.
3) Off topic point raised -- legally reducing one's personal income taxes does not deprive anyone else of assistance and is not hypocritical.