“The fact that at least, at this point in time, we don’t have to stress about finances is huge,” says Koziner. In fact, as Koziner says, “We made 20 grand in like a day or two.”įor Isabella and her parents, crowdfunding has alleviated financial pressure at an agonising time. “I was thinking 10 grand,” Masucci tells me. “People are weird with money.” Eventually they relented - and joined the thousands of US families that have turned to online crowdfunding to help pay for medical costs. Friends urged them to ask other people for help. Koziner’s retired parents offered to sell their house to raise funds, but the couple said no. The family pay $15,000 each year as part of cost-sharing arrangements with the insurer, then have to cover everything it will not, ranging from protein shots to hearing tests to two-way ambulance trips that can cost up to $3,000.
Instead, they are part of a larger group that is underinsured. She and Isabella were able to stay on the health plan provided by her employer, ensuring they did not join the 28 million Americans who lack any health insurance. After Isabella’s diagnosis, Koziner took unpaid leave to care for her daughter, reducing the family to a single income. For millions of others, they are a potentially crippling burden. 'We've amassed a good amount of money through the YouCaring site and for that we're grateful, but should it have to be that way?' Darren Masucci and Claudia Koziner, Isabella's parents, at home in Orlando © Adam Golferįor the most fortunate Americans, these costs are covered by comprehensive insurance plans. The most common form of childhood cancer costs on average $292,000 to treat, says St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The average cost of hospital stays for cancer patients in 2015 was $31,390, according to government figures - about half that year’s median household income. In the US, where healthcare is not a human right, any serious illness comes with a financial shock. They sleep for nights on end at the hospital. Once the treatment is over, she often succumbs to fevers and infections. Each chemotherapy cycle begins with their daughter’s screams as a needle is jabbed into her chest. For Claudia Koziner and Darren Masucci, the past year has been brutal. There to pick them up were her weary parents. Every so often she dropped her bag, scattering toys across the floor.
“Dr Smith, Dr Smith,” she chirped as she walked towards the children’s cancer centre. She knew where to go, what to do, who she would see. Now Isabella was back at a Florida hospital for more. Surgeons removed a tumour the size of a golf ball. Ten months earlier, after she began to experience balance problems and bouts of vomiting, a CT scan revealed she had brain cancer. It was close to her 50th day of chemotherapy.
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They enabled easier access to the tube that hung down from a catheter under the skin of her chest, allowing doctors to load the toxic drug Dactinomycin into her heart. Instead of the princess dress she had wanted to wear, she was dressed in a T-shirt and pink leggings. She carried a paper bag of prized possessions and bore two meandering scars on her hairless head. Isabella Masucci strode into hospital after a sleepless night.
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