Nomi Health Donates 100K to the Underinsured at HLTH 2022

Last year, the average American family faced an $8,000 to $12,000 medical expense gap before their insurance coverage kicked in, which would easily wipe out many households’ total savings. With 34% of individuals deferring care due to lack of affordability and Americans having the highest chronic disease burden of developed countries, it is high time that the healthcare system is rebuilt from the ground up.

As a sponsor at HLTH, a conference for major players shaping the future of healthcare, we shared how Nomi Health is rebuilding healthcare to be simple, direct, and easy for everyone. Throughout the conference, our parody campaign, Go Fund Yourself, embodied everything wrong with the U.S. Healthcare system. To highlight how Nomi Health is working to fix the system, Mark Newman, Co-Founder and CEO, and Sara Ratner, Nomi's President of Government Programs, spoke on a panel discussing digital health for equitable health and leveraging the role of policy.

We need to make it easy. How you sign up. How you enroll. How you engage and if we do that, we'll solve a really deep social problem. Nomi is focused on mobile-first for everything and it worked out serving 15M people in the last 2 years.

Mark NewmanCEO and Co-Founder, Nomi Health

One of our initiatives at HLTH was to bring awareness to the vast gaps in affordable care. In the United States, 62% of bankruptcies are attributed to medical expenses. Last year alone, one-third of all funds raised by GoFundMe were for health-related costs. Of those health-related campaigns, only 35% of the collective sought goal was met.

With the phenomenon of crowd-sourcing money to help cover astronomical healthcare bills now being commonplace, we created Go Fund Yourself, a fictitious, fill-in-the-blank story generator that allowed participants to craft a catastrophic healthcare scenario to shine light on how unaffordable receiving needed care can be. For each story submitted, Nomi Health donated $100 to an underinsured individual who needs assistance in covering their needed medical expenses.

We are pleased to announce we are donating a total of $100K to the HealthWell Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps the underinsured afford critical medical treatments. Thank you to the 500 HLTH attendees who participated in creating stories to help us meet our goal and bring awareness to the many ways Nomi is rebuilding the healthcare system to be convenient, accessible, and truly affordable for everyone.

We are honored to support the great work of this foundation and share the stories of three HealthWell Foundation recipients, twins Arielle and Joelle, and Tom.

Arielle and Joelle

“Arielle and Joelle are identical twins with cystic fibrosis (CF). Having each other to take on the fight against CF together is a blessing. HealthWell Foundation is another key part of the twins’ team in their fight with CF.

The generosity that has allowed the girls to receive the CF grants has really enabled the girls to thrive. The daily treatments to maintain their health take hours a day. Not stressing about the financial burden of the costly medications has helped.  

The twins call our friends at the HealthWell Foundation “the healthy people.” Our whole family is tremendously grateful for the life-giving medications and supplements HealthWell makes possible. We appreciate the generous donations so many people have given to sustain the lives of Arielle and Joelle. Thank you so very much for propelling the twins upward to a fun, full, beautiful life. We are forever grateful for the chance to continue this great adventure.” - Torey, Arielle and Joelle’s mom

Tom

“We want to express our profound gratitude for honoring my husband, Tom, by awarding him a $15,000 grant to support him through his journey with ALS. Tom was formally diagnosed with ALS on August 3, 2017. ALS has robbed us of life as we knew it, including Tom losing his speech, his mobility, and his livelihood. However, it has not robbed him of his mind, heart, sense of humor, or the example he sets for others. The words in this note speak from both of our hearts.

In the face of overwhelming adversity, we have strived to live through Tom's ALS diagnosis with grace and dignity. While he has also been hospitalized dozens of times, Tom wishes to live life to its fullest and in our home. Consequently, the progression of his disease required me to quit work to become his full-time caregiver. Without any paychecks coming in, our savings have been depleted by relentless medical bills and ongoing household expenses. Your grant to pay for Tom's insurance has been a lifeline and a blessing to our family during this difficult time. With sincere gratitude, we thank you.” - Tom (kind words from wife, Nelly)

Thank you to everyone who visited us at HLTH, visited our booth, and participated in story building which helped fund our donation to the HealthWell Foundation that makes a difference in the lives of many individuals.