Organ Donors in the US and possibly around the world may be shocked to learn just how much others are profiting from their gift. And I am not talking about an organ recipient. While performing research for an article centering on the healthcare debacle, which I contend, is a cyclical problem involving four diametrically opposed issues as listed below and some of the associated problems under each category:

Private Insurance ~ Coverage Quality ~ Premium Cost

Medical Billing ~ Pharmaceuticals ~ Fraud & Overage

Malpractice ~ Tort reform ~ Awards ~ Practice Insurance

Single Payer Systems ~ Government Controls ~ Taxes

During this research into the medical billing quadrant I came across some staggering and unbelievable information concerning organ transplant costs. Most shocking was a Procurement cost. A charge for procuring organs, yes the ones you lovingly donate, is being billed to patients. Your gift. Procuring doesn’t that mean to obtain via action? What action? I wanted to be sure so here are the definitions:

#1 - to obtain or get, effort, or the use of special means

#2 - to bring about by unscrupulous and indirect means.

Let’s see definition #1, I understand there are harvesting, preservation and transportation expenses which are undoubtedly incurred, but at an average cost (per the below chart) of $85,375.00 per “Gift”?

Okay now #2, are there hit squads or organ thieves out there working directly for the medical community? Hum… maybe that’s why it cost so much, pretty risky I should think.

Appears life or the preservation thereof is getting a bit pricey, or perhaps, and this will open up another whole can of worms, an old one, is the “fear” of losing life so strong that those providing medical services are taking just a “modicum of advantage. Conjures up images of the Shakespearean shylock demanding his pound of flesh or of the more familiar underworld lending characterization.

As of 2002, US government published records reveal over 79,000 U.S. patients are currently waiting for an organ transplant; nearly 3,000 new patients are added to the waiting list each month.

According to DonateLife.net there are 80 million registered donors in the US.

Other sources report 416,457 transplant operations have been performed since 1982 and 7000 people died last year awaiting transplants.

It should be noted these were patients on the “transplant list.” Candidacy for the list requires a number of medical criteria and viability percentages but a major part of list membership of course is financial ability. Whether that is via a sufficient amount of insurance coverage or a pretty damn full mattress if you ain’t got it you ain’t getting it.

Information I have yet to come across is the number of patients that do not qualify for the “list.” I am sure these numbers are heartbreakingly high. I know I am pretty sure since I have performed at a number of benefits for families that have either not had any insurance or not enough just in my local area. Given not all of these benefits have been for transplants but all have supported some type of medical cost need.

Besides the stark realization of the fees charged by Hospitals and Doctors for these procedures, the procurement fee to me appears completely outrageous. These entities are charging what I believe are unsubstantiated charges for your gift.

Transplants are just a small segment of “life saving” medical procedures. It’s no wonder the insurance companies and our premiums have skyrocketed. Research into cancer costs, which are a huge segment of medical billing and economic structure, I discovered the numbers are so conflicting depending upon what entity is being billed, making sense of it all is going to take awhile. Let it suffice to say, it ain’t very honest out there and as a taxpayer you are apparently going to bear the brunt of it.

I was under the impression that selling organs was against the law, deceptively only if you do it.

Your gift of life as wonderful as it is, is also, sadly, yet apparently a windfall gift and/or an opportunity for graft in the medical community.