Millions raised for health issues on Givealittle

Thousands of people turn to crowdfunding platform Givealittle every year to raise money to cover their health needs - and it's prompted a warning from the insurance industry.

Its latest report shows there was $33.1 million donated in the year to June, of which $23.6m went to individuals.

There were 11,100 pages set up in the year. The clear majority were for health reasons - at 2407. That was followed by community causes, with 1487 and animals at 1043.

Givealittle said the number of health related pages had remained consistent over the past two years. Last year, there were 2580 such pages and the year before there were 2560.

Health causes raised $15 million in the most recent year. That could include direct treatment or living expenses and other costs related to health conditions

"The Givealittle platform can be a lifeline for those who need to raise extra funds for expensive drugs, and is an important platform to help fill the gaps where some medical treatments perhaps are not funded in NZ yet," said Givealittle chief executive Lythan Chapman.

"We believe everyone should feel empowered to ask for help, and we're committed to ensuring those who wish to give can do so with trust and confidence."

Kirk Hope, chief executive of the Financial Services Council which represents health and life insurers, said Givealittle was sometimes used in cases that could have been covered by insurance.

"What we've seen with the economic downturn is people are not really assessing risk. They are saying we can't afford certain things, they might say that health insurance for example is discretionary… then they're having to rely on things like Givealittle for support."

He said people needed to take care before cancelling insurance to understand what they could face if their health circumstances changed.

"The last place you want to be relying on is others through things like Givealittle."

He said New Zealand needed to get public policy settings right so that employers who wanted to offer insurance to staff could do so easily.

"Fringe benefit tax could be looked at. It needs to be looked at from a macro perspective, there are a few things we might want to change to enable and incentivise people so they can take up insurance to cover themselves so they're not relying on Givealittle."

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