Bash all you want but this is why we need universal healthcare. We can't have campaigns like this for every person but I strongly believe that everyone is entitled to a better life. My hope is that stories like this will raise awareness of why universal healthcare is sorely needed.<p>Sometimes I wish there was a technology solution for everything.
As others have pointed out, the money was used for relocation and support while not working:<p>> <i>Lucas and his family have to relocate to be close to his doctors at Duke University for six months. His parents decided they would both quit their jobs to care for the boy and his baby brother. After meeting with financial planners, the family decided they would need to raise $50,000 to support themselves</i><p>Even in the UK, with an extensive and complex set of welfare benefits, people would not be supported fully by the state if they just left their jobs to care for an ill child. (I have no idea what benefits would be available, the system is pretty much incomprehensible.) So Redditors did something really good, that have made this child's recovery a lot nicer.<p>But, for people who want to talk about politics: How can the US government spend so much on healthcare and have such a lousy system?<p>(<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-brutal-truth-about-americarsquos-healthcare-1772580.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-brutal-...</a>)<p>(<a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEOMqU-wJjqgfQ" rel="nofollow">https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phNtm3LmDZEOMqU-wJjq...</a>)
This is not the time to debate the healthcare issues<p>This was a great story about a caring family and their son Lucas getting treatment and the tech family helped…that’s all that matters here.
Some more about the story:<p>On Reddit blog:<p><a href="http://blog.reddit.com/2011/12/3-year-old-lucas-inspires-reddit.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.reddit.com/2011/12/3-year-old-lucas-inspires-red...</a><p>And the original posting:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Assistance/comments/muvuk/everywhere_hi_reddit_im_lucas_im_3_years_old_have/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/Assistance/comments/muvuk/everywhere...</a>
This reminded me of the people in egypt (i think it was, or somewhere near) that named their baby facebook cuz he was born during the arab spring. The reddit story is more poignant to me, maybe cuz the only other mainstream media coverage of reddit was that whole jailbait debacle. Nice to see the site redeem itself..maybe redditors really do get the whole karma concept after all