Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: The Case of the 17,000 Missing Kidneys
There are more than 100,000 Americans on the waiting lists to receive an organ transplant, and many of them will die without ever getting one.
At least some of those lives would be saved if the monopoly government contractors managing America’s organ donation system weren’t so bad at their jobs, argues Jennifer Erickson.
“Monopolies don’t work and government-funded monopolies are even worse,” says Erickson, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), on the newest episode of Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. “It’s hurting patients. It’s hurting the taxpayers. And we’ve got to get to some real accountability.”
According to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, about 28,000 donatable organs are going uncollected each year from people who have died after agreeing to be organ donors. That total includes 17,000 kidneys. Additionally, one in every five kidneys is thrown away after being harvested, rather than making it to a recipient.
Those missed opportunities mean longer waits on the transplant list, but it also means higher costs for taxpayers. Every Medicare patient who gets a new kidney this year will save taxpayers $250,000 in future dialysis costs, according to FAS’ research.
However, the government contractors who are supposed to be doing the work of connecting donors with recipients keep dropping the ball. There are 56 organ procurement organizations (OPOs) operating in exclusive territories around the country. A 2019 study found
Article from Reason.com
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