"Am I really funding medical care for the patient?
Yes. Your donation directly covers the cost of care for the patient you choose. Medical Partners provide care to patients accepted by Watsi operating under the guarantee that the cost of care will be paid for by donors. In this sense, Watsi operates much like a traditional health insurance company. When you go to the doctor, your doctor calls your health insurance provider to ensure they’ll cover the cost of care. Your doctor then provides care operating under the guarantee that it will be paid for by the insurance company."
(And thank goodness they don't wait! That would be pretty scary.)
This is a bit different, I think, from the thing people found confusing about Kiva ( http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-w... ) which was that they were inviting investments in microloans which had already been disbursed. But it may be similar enough that you find it interesting if you like to "follow the money".
Sorry if our wording was confusing. We guarantee funding for every patient profile we accept before posting it online. We adopted this process based on feedback from our Medical Partners. If you're interested, you can find more info in our FAQ and on our blog.
It's a pretty similar model, but yes with most loans on Kiva, the field partner pre-disburses the loan to the recipient and then lenders backfill the loan. The idea is that this will give field partners some "market" feedback on what kind of loans lenders wish to fund, although obviously there's an education aspect here, because new lenders may not know that some loans may be more impactful at alleviating poverty than others, though either way they are free to choose. As you say, obviously you wouldn't want to do this with medical donations where people's lives are on the line, but it does work pretty well at Kiva I think to provide some inspiration to our field partners to find the most impactful and catalytic loans. That's about 90% of the loans, and then about 10% are post-disbursed only getting funded if Kiva lenders fund them. Then we have Kiva Zip which is true peer-to-peer, for cases when a field partner is not necessary such as working with mobile payments in Kenya or some borrowers here in the U.S. http://zip.kiva.org
As someone who firmly believes in a start-up's social mission, I would recommend getting on phone with a few Watsi clients (I am sure Watsi does it from time to time). It puts perspective on a lot of things.
You are making a lot of impact in these people's lives and they will let you know how much they appreciate it. On a website these people are somewhat distant story but talking to them is when you really share their experience. It will make you feel good (and somewhat worried) about what you are doing.
My wife and I sponsored a heart surgery for a child in Ethiopia with an organization we work with. The child's mother wouldn't let the child travel to get the needed surgery and that child ended up dying. Tragic.
They used the funds for another child, Kidest, and her photo is on our fridge for the same reason.
Kudos to Watsi for doing this. The transparency is the key which is differentiating it from other non-profits and wish them all the best. Even though we know, but it is sometimes hard to keep in mind that for a mere $1200 , you could save someone's life and what it could mean for them. Sometimes, I forget how lucky I am to have sound health, great family and a roof over my head. We take it for granted while millions of people in this world fight every day just to get some of it.
Everyone wants to change the world, but Watsi changed "her world" and gave her the opportunity to pass it on. If Watsi never makes a dollar ... or even if they never help another soul, it would be sad, but they've left a legacy that few companies can claim regardless of their size.
As it is operated by a not-for-profit company, never making a dollar is part and parcel of its purpose. Hopefully it also helps many people in the process.
It still makes dollars for its compensated staff and founder/managers (unless the founders are working on a strictly volunteer basis). (PG will not make direct dollars off it, though.)
Beautiful site and a great way to introduce the concept via Bageshwori. Maybe it's because I'm a parent myself, but I'm still tearing up at these pictures.
I'm donating today, and saving the link for the next person that bitches to me about another Kickstarter delay.
It is truly outstanding that 100% of the donations reach the medical partners. Watsi is doing it right. Their level of transparency is also admirable.
Nyaya Health, the partner this blog post is about, uses the same funding model, where all donations made are 100% used for patient care in Nepal (unless you explicitly want your donation to be used for US staff/operations)
I'd like to see them add a "monthly donation" where someone can just set their cc / bank account up to fund $50 a month. They'd allocate the money to specific cases and send you an email to the one(s) they used your money to fund.
I love what you guys are doing and hope you can fund hundreds of these at a time. But, right now there's only six people who I can donate to. I want to support the organization as well, to make sure you guys can keep helping people.
How about a "fund our operations" button, or at least some pool that I can donate to if there aren't any people left who need a treatment right this second (as occurred the last time I left this comment).
Otherwise, cheers. I just made another donation. I think what you're doing is spectacular.
I believe the "donate towards our costs" button only shows up when there are no patients to donate to. I have a paypal receipt from donating towards their operating costs, so I know it was up there at some point!
Thanks for the support and suggestions! Since we launched Watsi with 0 funding, it was the ultimate MVP. Because of that, we've had some performance and backend things to fix up before jumping into new features (e.g. until recently our partners were individually emailing us patient profiles).
But we're about to push some new features (Stripe integration, optional "tips" to Watsi, and a General Fund). They're coming soon, we promise! (Teasers below)
Awesome! Also, I'm sure you've thought of this, but each profile should be updated when treatment is complete, and you should have a section where these success stories are published. This would lend tremendous credibility to those who look through the funded cases, but don't necessarily click over to the blog.
We totally agree, and we're excited to to integrate updates into the platform as soon as possible. For now, you can view updates (and tons more info) for every patient we've ever funded on our Transparency Google Document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ah3wJ9CRQzyHdDZ...
I think the general fund is the most important option right now. I don't actually want to end up deciding who gets my money, I'd much rather see donations spread out among people who need them, based on medical urgency if possible (as opposed to who is most photogenic or who has the most touching story).
With Watsi's 100% of funds going to patients and the fact that they make it so easy to donate, I decided last month to start donating 2% of my monthly income through Watsi. Basically at the start of each month I choose 2 campaigns and donate $50 on each. Is very easy, you should try it.
Whats I find even more interesting is that by end of year I'll donate $1,200. Which turns out to be roughly the amount of 1 life saving surgery in Nepal. So basically I'll save 1 life by the end of the year.
I normally hold the philosophy that a person should not recieve health care unless there is money to pay for them, and I woudn't ever advocate that someone donate to a charity like that. Life is hard and not everybody can make it.
But the smile on her face, especially in that last photo, is really something. And especially at $1125, the chance that she'll contribute more than that back to the global GPD some day is good.
And it might even be enough for me that she might live a normal life.
I hope you never find yourself in a situation where you need medical care and can't pay for it. Because the rest of us, who are in possession of at least a few scraps of human decency, would have to shell out to save your ungrateful ass.
A human life is worth more than its economic output.
The importance of someone's life is not correlated to their wealth, or to the environment they're born into. That both factors are used as a metric for who gets to live is shameful.
Born and raised in Nepal,I ,am so sad and happy at the same time. And thanks 100000x to watsi.org. I know there are many such cases in Nepal and just a little help could save so many human lives in countries like ours. I am a computer science student myself at Silicon Valley, and if there is any technical help necessary for Watsi.org or any such organizations, I am more than ready to volunteer. In the mean time, Thanks again for saving Bageshwori's life.
I wish I had a hundred up votes to give! Sitting at my desk at $work, I'm struggling to keep back the tears. You guys are awesome! This is a startup that truly makes a difference. :)
One feature I'd love to see is the ability to setup a regular donation. Doing it via credit card is fine. You can give it to a random person as it makes no difference to me. The option to donate to the operating costs would also be great and then I could do both. The key feature is to make it regular and automatic. In my case, I get paid fortnightly so you could take $25 every two weeks and split it between patients and operating expenses. Will the upcoming Stripe integration allow this?
There's something I always wondered about 3rd world medicine. If her surgery was $1125 and the average person makes $0.90/day (less than $1) that means her surgery cost 3.42ish year's wages.
Could I get the same surgery here in the USA for $171233 (median income in the US assumed about $50,000)?
Is there some sort of balancing feedback function thats stretching the cost of a certain level of medical care to a certain predictable multiple of a local year's median wage?
It would at least be an interesting rabbit hole to descend.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 132 ms ] thread"Am I really funding medical care for the patient? Yes. Your donation directly covers the cost of care for the patient you choose. Medical Partners provide care to patients accepted by Watsi operating under the guarantee that the cost of care will be paid for by donors. In this sense, Watsi operates much like a traditional health insurance company. When you go to the doctor, your doctor calls your health insurance provider to ensure they’ll cover the cost of care. Your doctor then provides care operating under the guarantee that it will be paid for by the insurance company."
(And thank goodness they don't wait! That would be pretty scary.)
This is a bit different, I think, from the thing people found confusing about Kiva ( http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-w... ) which was that they were inviting investments in microloans which had already been disbursed. But it may be similar enough that you find it interesting if you like to "follow the money".
FAQ: https://watsi.org/faq#how-do-the-donation-logistics-work Blog: http://blog.watsi.org/post/43199420898/watsis-operational-pr...
http://media.tumblr.com/c8a33a98917d46ca8d3220183dfd6e5e/tum...
because I know I'll click on it accidentally a few times a day.
I do it to remind me that there are more important things than whatever fire I'm currently fighting, and also simply because it makes me happy.
You are making a lot of impact in these people's lives and they will let you know how much they appreciate it. On a website these people are somewhat distant story but talking to them is when you really share their experience. It will make you feel good (and somewhat worried) about what you are doing.
My wife and I sponsored a heart surgery for a child in Ethiopia with an organization we work with. The child's mother wouldn't let the child travel to get the needed surgery and that child ended up dying. Tragic.
They used the funds for another child, Kidest, and her photo is on our fridge for the same reason.
Watsi seems to personalise charity to a level I have never seen before. It's very exciting!
Watsi looks absolutely amazing and I want them to succeed more than any other startup.
Well done!
As it is operated by a not-for-profit company, never making a dollar is part and parcel of its purpose. Hopefully it also helps many people in the process.
I'm donating today, and saving the link for the next person that bitches to me about another Kickstarter delay.
I agree and was thinking maybe tear-jerker stories on HN should be marked as NSFW. How am I supposed to keep my stoic German personae?
Slowly pound the desk with your fist as you cry.
Nyaya Health, the partner this blog post is about, uses the same funding model, where all donations made are 100% used for patient care in Nepal (unless you explicitly want your donation to be used for US staff/operations)
Bravo to both.
I love what you guys are doing and hope you can fund hundreds of these at a time. But, right now there's only six people who I can donate to. I want to support the organization as well, to make sure you guys can keep helping people.
How about a "fund our operations" button, or at least some pool that I can donate to if there aren't any people left who need a treatment right this second (as occurred the last time I left this comment).
Otherwise, cheers. I just made another donation. I think what you're doing is spectacular.
But we're about to push some new features (Stripe integration, optional "tips" to Watsi, and a General Fund). They're coming soon, we promise! (Teasers below)
Payments & Tips: http://i.imgur.com/ZRzTvhj.jpg General Fund: http://i.imgur.com/fUCM4za.jpg
https://watsi.org/faq#how-do-the-donation-logistics-work
Whats I find even more interesting is that by end of year I'll donate $1,200. Which turns out to be roughly the amount of 1 life saving surgery in Nepal. So basically I'll save 1 life by the end of the year.
But the smile on her face, especially in that last photo, is really something. And especially at $1125, the chance that she'll contribute more than that back to the global GPD some day is good.
And it might even be enough for me that she might live a normal life.
ayn rand teaches incredible things, but there are big gaps
A human life is worth more than its economic output.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan
The importance of someone's life is not correlated to their wealth, or to the environment they're born into. That both factors are used as a metric for who gets to live is shameful.
Done. This is amazing.
One feature I'd love to see is the ability to setup a regular donation. Doing it via credit card is fine. You can give it to a random person as it makes no difference to me. The option to donate to the operating costs would also be great and then I could do both. The key feature is to make it regular and automatic. In my case, I get paid fortnightly so you could take $25 every two weeks and split it between patients and operating expenses. Will the upcoming Stripe integration allow this?
Could I get the same surgery here in the USA for $171233 (median income in the US assumed about $50,000)?
Is there some sort of balancing feedback function thats stretching the cost of a certain level of medical care to a certain predictable multiple of a local year's median wage?
It would at least be an interesting rabbit hole to descend.
That would be pretty interesting though.