I wrote about this on here once before, but for a while I was working on a short story about a fictional dystopia in which crowdfunded healthcare devolves into a televised game show where people pitch their sob story to viewers. Whomever ends up with the most votes (a la The Voice), moves onto the next round, until finally one person is crowned the winner and has all of their needs taken care of. What was supposed to be a silly story turned super cynical and depressing, so I stopped working on it.

When I last talked about it, someone pointed out that this was already a thing, back in the 1950s, called "Queen for a Day" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day

Each contestant was asked to talk about the recent financial and emotional hard times she had been through. The interview would climax with Bailey asking the contestant what she needed most and why she wanted to win the title of Queen for a Day. Often the request was for medical care or therapeutic equipment to help a chronically ill child, or might be for a hearing aid, a new washing machine, or a refrigerator. Many women broke down sobbing as they described their plights.