10k out of 1.4 million for heart transplant too much?

[RetiredERdoc]

Saw the social media outrage about the woman denied heart transplant due to not having 10k to pay for the anti rejection drugs. It doesn’t seem too much to ask to me, but apparently everyone is outraged by it.

i believe everyone is entitled to medical care, food and lodging, but the food and lodging might not be lobster thermadore at the Ritz. Is healthcare the same?

 

https://splinternews.com/hospital-refuses-procedure-prescribes-fundraising-eff-1830632502#_ga=2.185505513.1596524415.1543094693-940788948.1535922364

 

[Thread closed for generating more heat than light.]

[Panscan]

If anyone actually saw what average transplant patient acted like they'd have a lot less sympathy. Not every one is a 20 yr old with some tragic congenital disease. Way more commonly people with severe substance abuse problems and etc who truly don't care. Ive had numerous people tell me post transplant they wish they never had it.

So enraging. Or people who don't take their immunosuppression and go into rejection. Kills me

[pulmdoc]

Making sure there is adequate funding to ensure the patient doesn't go off their antirejection meds is prudence, nothing more.

"Medicare for all" won't change this situation at all. As noted in the story, the patient has Medicare. Medicare is not free care, people still have to pay copays and deductibles. Also noted, the patient initially did not pay for any Part D coverage, which is why this was such a concern in the first place.

[ENT Doc]

Are we surprised that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put 100% emotion and zero thought/research into her tweet?  This is the same person who described the three branches of government as the Presidency, House, and the Senate.  Slow clap, NY's 14th.

[ACN]

Everyone needs skin in the game. It creates responsibility and ownership. When things are free, people abuse it and don't care.

I try to talk to patients about my finances as much as I can. Patients have zero understanding of hospital bills or what I get paid.

I had a patient tell me that I get paid $10k for their joint replacement the other day. I explained that, the hospital will get about $20-30k, and I'll get $1k. And after overhead and taxes, maybe $200.

They usually have a look of shame at that point because they had no idea.

[Dusn]

I hope the democrat party stays near the center and not the Ocasio-Cortez far left. But she’s going to have to say some stuff way stupider than that if she ever wants to hold a candle to the stupidity coming out of the White House.

[Tim]

“Are we surprised that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put 100% emotion and zero thought/research into her tweet?”

Over Thanksgiving I was thankful she wasn’t a physician or kindergarten teacher. Not the brightest crayon in the box.

Not surprised at all. You just pay for it.

[CrockettsRiver]

This article is a conflation of oh-so-many things, including the media's and politicians' tendency to pull one thread out of a complicated story.  I'm sure this patient's story is complicated because you don't get to the point of needing a heart transplant without a complicated story, and we aren't hearing it.  And patients get bumped off transplant lists for all kinds of reasons, many more fickle than this one.  In countries with more tightly regulated healthcare systems (meaning, all of them), lots of patients are told they can't have all kinds of expensive treatments - and this is accepted as being part of the common good.  And of course, as all docs know, being able to afford 10k in drugs (which actually isn't that expensive, lots of drug regimens are way more expensive) doesn't guarantee anyone a heart or a successful transplant.

There is no country on earth in which everyone who needs a heart gets it, or gets it in a timely way.

[snowcanyon]

Tim wrote:

“Are we surprised that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put 100% emotion and zero thought/research into her tweet?”

Over Thanksgiving I was thankful she wasn’t a physician or kindergarten teacher. Not the brightest crayon in the box.

Not surprised at all. You just pay for it.

Click to expand...

You may disagree with her, but anyone who won second prize in the Intel science competition is far from a dullard.

[Panscan]

Wasn't this the same site that talked about how those science fairs are a total sham?

[mxg67]

It's not much at all and the hospital is doing right by the donor heart to make sure it's not wasted.  If anything I'm more shocked by the patient having trouble finding $10k at that age.

[snowcanyon]

I agree that it's pointless to give organs to people whose circumstances are such that they can't care for themselves or their organs (those with untreated addictions, for example), and that we know very little of the true circumstances of this particular case. That having been said, poor people donate organs too, and we have a donor shortage throughout this country. Stories like this, which plant the idea (I'm sure the reality of this situation was much more complex) that people with less money are not candidates for transplant, may lead fewer folks to want to donate organs if they begin to think that they or their families might not be eligible for an organ in their hour of need.

In any case, seems like the patient raised more than enough money. I  hope her medical needs are taken care of and that she makes a speedy recovery.

 

[Panscan]

I don't understand why organ donation is a thing on IDs. Why is that someone who would look at someone's ID would ever need to know?

The reality of most of these situations is a young adult after a trauma who is brain-dead.

I just don't see where there is any benefit or point of having it on the IDs. Either way the person is going to be intubated, treated, etc and will go through brain death screening, family will be approached about donating, etc.

 

[G]

RetiredERdoc wrote:

Saw the social media outrage about the woman denied heart transplant due to not having 10k to pay for the anti rejection drugs. It doesn’t seem too much to ask to me, but apparently everyone is outraged by it.

i believe everyone is entitled to medical care, food and lodging, but the food and lodging might not be lobster thermadore at the Ritz. Is healthcare the same?

 

https://splinternews.com/hospital-refuses-procedure-prescribes-fundraising-eff-1830632502#_ga=2.185505513.1596524415.1543094693-940788948.1535922364

Click to expand...

A prime reason why I think a two-tiered health coverage system is doomed to fail: it isn't fair that someone has to settle for universal coverage (Super 8) while elsewhere someone is covered at the Ritz.

Hey, folks should get whatever they want.  Immediately.  And Society should pay for it.  Cost is immaterial.

Who is John Galt?

[Anne]

Panscan wrote:

I don’t understand why organ donation is a thing on IDs. Why is that someone who would look at someone’s ID would ever need to know?

The reality of most of these situations is a young adult after a trauma who is brain-dead.

I just don’t see where there is any benefit or point of having it on the IDs. Either way the person is going to be intubated, treated, etc and will go through brain death screening, family will be approached about donating, etc.

 

Click to expand...

Signing up as an organ donor on your drivers license is giving your legal consent.  If you die of brain death and they have your license they can use that to move forward with procurement.  Of course they discuss it with your family first, and I think if family declines they often go with that to avoid litigation, but they actually could move forward with procurement by virtue of having the (deceased) person's legal consent, known to them from the ID.  In addition, it shows the family members, who may be conflicted about organ donation, what the person's wishes were, which may help them provide their own agreement. Finally, bringing up the subject at the DMV can lead to more open conversations with family members--"oh by the way honey, when I got my drivers license today I signed up to be an organ donor, that's important to me, what would you want if you were in that situation" etc.  Personally, the decision of what to do with my organs in the case of my brain death is a decision I wish to make myself, not leave to my family members to make in a very adverse emotional state.