Donor beware: Health insurers send the wrong message to organ donors

[depakid]

There seems to be no end to the injustices, great and small, inherent in the American health care system.

Here's another one: If you decide to make the selfless decision to donate an organ, say a kidney or a portion of your liver, some day you may be rewarded for your incredible generosity by being denied health care insurance because you have, yes, a "preexisting condition."

The Los Angeles Times' David Lazarus recently surveyed most major insurance companies and discovered that not one would definitively answer whether they would regard an organ donor as having a preexisting condition and subject to higher rates or denial of coverage.

Wrong answer. The people who have the compassion and courage to donate an organ to save another person's life should not have to wonder whether they will be punished for it by health insurance companies. There should never, ever, be any insurance penalty for organ donation.

Yet all that the major insurers were willing to tell Lazarus was that they would consider organ donors on a "case by case basis." Everybody who has ever gotten lost in the maze that is the American health insurance system knows what that means: Look out for higher rates and denials.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/07/insurers_send_the_wrong_messag.html

[jody]

1. "No good deed goes unpunished." n/t

[Ms. Toad]

2. Truly sad - just one more reason to fix our broken

health care system.

I would be curious as to why a liver donation would be considered a pre-existing condition for more than a brief period - since one of the amazing things about the liver is that it completely regenerates itself.

I'm also signed up to be a bone marrow donor - wonder if that falls into the same category.

[johnaries]

3. Holy Larry Niven!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organlegging

Organlegging is the name of a fictional crime in the Known Space universe created by Larry Niven.....

It is an examination of the consequences to society of a new technology (in this case, the perfection of organ transplants) and an existing problem (organ shortage), carried to a logical conclusion....

In Niven's universe, it was possible to transplant nearly any organ in the body (and prevent rejection) by the mid twentyfirst century. Since any organ could now be replaced, in theory one could use the organ banks to extend life indefinitely. In practice, however, this was not the case. To maintain communal organ banks, one needs donors (i.e. dead people). When the death rate is reduced (via the organ banks), the number of donors decreases. Therefore the system was fundamentally flawed, as the demand would always exceed the supply.....

Organlegging can be considered a crime that evolved to meet the demand. Since the supply of organs could never match the demand, there would be those desperate enough seek them at any cost. Many of those people would be of sufficient wealth as to provide a strong financial incentive for a black market.