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In case anyone is wondering, if I am reading their FAQ correctly, they don't actually wait until the crowdsourced treatment is 100% funded before they provide m
by mherdeg 14y ago
In case anyone is wondering, if I am reading their FAQ correctly, they don't actually wait until the crowdsourced treatment is 100% funded before they provide medical care -- per https://watsi.org/faq#am-i-really-funding-medical-care-for-the-patient https://watsi.org/faq#am-i-really-funding-medical-care-for-t... .
"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-what-it-seems.php 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".
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- chaseadam17 14y agoSorry 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. FAQ: https://watsi.org/faq#how-do-the-donation-logistics-work https://watsi.org/faq#how-do-the-donation-logistics-work Blog: http://blog.watsi.org/post/43199420898/watsis-operational-process-version-2-0 http://blog.watsi.org/post/43199420898/watsis-operational-pr...
- nowarninglabel 14y agoIt'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 http://zip.kiva.org
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