Denying health insurance for kidney donors is about as low as you can get

If insurance executives are trying to make us hate their industry, they’re doing a wonderful job of it.

Our premiums go up. Our coverage goes down. And now this…

Insurance companies often refuse health insurance coverage for healthy people who donate their kidneys.

How infuriating is that!? It’s the lowest imaginable way to treat someone who acts on such a pure level of generosity.

Here’s what insurance companies SHOULD do. They should give free health care for life to anyone who donates a kidney.

And I’m not saying that to be emotional. It’s just good business.

Let’s do the math…

The possibility of insurance denial discourages potential kidney donors. That means that thousands of patients survive with dialysis. And the difference between living with dialysis and living with a transplant is obvious. It’s the difference between living like an invalid and living a normal life.

And the cost is astronomical. U.S. patients pay out nearly $40 billion per year for dialysis. Insurance covers much of that. Meanwhile, a kidney transplant costs about the same as two years of dialysis.

In addition, studies show that the rate of kidney failure is actually LOWER among kidney donors compared to the general population. And donors live just as long as their two-kidnied counterparts do.

Insurance companies, are you doing the math here? You would spend less on dialysis. In return, people would live healthier, more productive lives.

What part of “win-win” do you not understand?

Sources:
“The Reward for Donating a Kidney: No Insurance” Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times, 6/11/12, well.blogs.nytimes.com