Kidney Donation too Expensive for Poor Donors

[okarol]

Kidney Donation too Expensive for Poor Donors

By Staff Reporter Jul 18, 2014 06:19 AM EDT

A new study suggests that kidney donation is too expensive for some potential donors. The research might explain why kidney donations have dropped in the past few years.
The cost of donating a kidney is about $5000 and in some areas, as high as $20,000, researchers said.
The study, conducted by researchers at Jagbir Gill, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues, could help policymakers understand the financial aspect of organ donations and design effective strategies to address the issue.
For the present study, researchers used median household income level of residents' zip codes to divide U.S population into different groups. Researchers then examined the rates of donations between 1999 and 2010 in both high and low income groups.
The team found that rates of living donations in the low-income group were consistently lower. However, the rates reached a record low in recent years.
The high income group registered high living donation rates.                             
"Since 2004, lower income populations experienced a large decline in living donation, while living donation in higher income populations was more stable," said Jagbir Gill, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver). "These results suggest that financial barriers to living donation need to be further addressed in order to make it easier for patients to consider and pursue living kidney donation."
The study is published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
A related study had recently reported that living donors face insurance problems. About 15 percent of kidney donors in a study reported that they were denied health insurance, while 12 were charged a high premium. This study was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medicine.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/8120/20140718/kidney-donation-expensive-poor-donors.htm

[nursey66]

Hopefully , the new "Obama Care " should be ending the pre-existing conditions , so that should not be an issue for donors.I do understand loss time from work can be prohibitive for some , but the new way of removing the donor kidney by laporoscopy, makes recovery quick for most. My Hubby's sister went home the next day , and back to work in 2 weeks when she donated. Too bad there is not a fund out there for people to access if there is a need for help. It could sure be cost effective , if more people could afford to donate.

[Darthvadar]

There's also the issue of things like Travel and Life Insurance being more expensive, and difficult to get in the future...

Most insurance companies would load the premium considerably...

Darth...