> No insurance in the US? They won't even assess you.
Do you have a source that goes into the reasoning behind this? I could guess, but I'd prefer to give the subject the respect it deserves.
Do you have a source that goes into the reasoning behind this? I could guess, but I'd prefer to give the subject the respect it deserves.
For me, a magical additional insurance policy appeared in my hospital account to which all transplant-related expenses were charged.
In addition, to get an organ in the US you must pass a series of exams regarding your physical and mental health, diet, your ability to get post-transplant support, and your willingness and ability to take care of your new organ. Alcohol and drug tests as appropriate. And for these evaluations, money can only indirectly help you.
I would also guess that there is a correlation between those people who have insurance and those that can pass the transplant evaluation, though that's a hidden variable that the powers that be probably want to stay hidden.
Organs are just too scarce to waste on a person who will squander one. It's a life and death competition between patients. It's horrible to see the people who get left behind, who wait too long, get sidetracked by some "miracle" cure, or even happen to live in the wrong region of the country where organs are scarce.
But the true miracle of a successful transplant is almost unfathomable (and that's said by a rationalist). From death's bed to walking a couple kilometers in a month and a half.
A simple "no" would have sufficed.
That 1M "cost" you mentioned isn't actually the cost is it? It's the amount the hospital wants to recover from an insurer. The true dollar cost is much lower.
I'm not saying it's easy to get an organ transplant without insurance, but to say it's impossible without anything but speculation isn't very useful.
Neither would proceed with any paperwork or testing without proof of insurance coverage specifically for transplant.
Honestly, I'm not especially concerned with edge cases like "is it possible to get a transplant without insurance if I offer to pay cash?" or questions about what a transplant really costs.
Those are irrelevant academic questions for the vast majority of transplant patients.
Where should you move if you want an organ?
The reasons are morbidly fascinating and too detailed to go into here.
Midwest and southern generosity typically drives higher donation rates. Neighboring states may draw organs from your state.
Transplant hospitals that do many cases get really good at it, and have enough experience that they will use organs other centers will reject. My liver was rejected by at least one other transplant center before it arrived in Indianapolis. (They let me see it before surgery. How cool is that?) So think twice before ruling out an organ just because someone else said no.
Blood type, physical size, and exact timing of things can cause lucky breaks.
Transplants are expensive, but the amount billed to your insurance is not a meaningful number in any way. Hospitals don't actually expect insurers to pay that; they set the number absurdly high as a starting point for the back-and-forth negotiations. This is particularly true for very expensive procedures which are almost always paid for by private insurance - both because of the expense, but in some cases by law.
(On that note, even looking at the amount paid by your insurance is misleading as well, because if you're on private insurance, you're paying not just for your own care, but to cover the care of people who are on Medicare and Medicaid, since private insurers are required to cover the costs of those patients' care as well. This is especially true for high-end, expensive, and/or chronic or terminal treatments like dialysis.)
The only major variable you should try to optimize is wait list time. Outcomes are roughly comparable across centers and are monitored by the government.