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Comment by Zagitta | Hacker News Reader

Planes transport more things than people, like organs for transplants. Are those a luxury too?

Can't tell if joking, healthcare is essentially a luxury now. An organ transplant could very likely lead to someone becoming destitute.

That just goes to show how big the rift in the western world has grown. I'm European, so to me healthcare is not a luxury no.

If an organ transplant means I have to live on the street, I’ll still take the transplant. It may not be nearly as accessible as it should be, but that doesn’t really mean we can blow it off as unnecessary.

I'm an American, and I'm absolutely certain at this point in my life that I will never be able to afford to pay for an organ transplant to benefit myself or anyone that I know, regardless of any compatibile combination of need and availability that may arise.

Therefore, it will never happen.

So yes: I'd like to suggest that organ transplants may be in fact be luxuries.

(If the question were instead worded as "Should organ transplants be considered luxuries?" then my answer would be written very differently.)

You may never be able to afford it, and your private insurance may not pay for it, but Medicare will without much fanfare. So if you’re planning on living past 65 it could happen.

There's a completely non-zero chance that I won't be able to afford to live to reach 65 and will be therefore will never gain the availability of the possibility of receiving an organ transplant.

For now, it remains a luxurious and unattainable concept to me.

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