In The US Health System
Transplant recipients must take immunosuppressive anti-rejection drugs for as long as the transplanted kidney functions. For the routine immunosuppressives Prograf, Cellcept and prednisone, these drugs cost US$1,500 per month. In 1999 Congress passed a law that restricts Medicare from paying for more than three years for these drugs, unless the patient is otherwise Medicare eligible. Transplant programs may not transplant a patient unless the patient has a reasonable plan to pay for medication after the medicare expires, however, patients are almost never turned down for financial reasons alone. 50% of patients with end-stage renal disease only have Medicare coverage.
In March 2009 a bill was introduced in the Senate, 565 and in the House, H.R. 1458 that will extend Medicare coverage of the drugs for as long as the patient has a functioning transplant. This means that patients who have lost their jobs and insurance will not also lose their kidney and be forced back on dialysis. Dialysis is currently using up $17 billion yearly of Medicare funds and total care of these patients amounts to over 10% of the entire Medicare budget.
Read more about this topic: Kidney Transplantation
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or system:
“The fact that the mental health establishment has equated separation with health, equated women’s morality with soft-heartedness, and placed mothers on the psychological hot seat has taken a toll on modern mothers.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)