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Transplanting organs is an amazing feat of science. However, how does it make any financial sense? This one of those things that makes sense to cut when you st

Transplanting organs is an amazing feat of science. However, how does it make any financial sense? This one of those things that makes sense to cut when you start talking universal healthcare, right?

DoreenMichele 4y ago
It makes for razzle dazzle headlines. That seems to keep it alive. I wish there was more emphasis on helping people keep their original equipment from the manufacturer, so to speak.
sokoloff 4y ago
There are a lot of surgeries and novel treatments that don’t make any financial sense. We don’t make healthcare decisions on a P&L basis, but hopefully on some kind of cost vs expected benefit to the patient basis. Transplanting a kidney or liver into a 20 year old has more of my support than transplanting a heart into an 85 year old.
maxerickson 4y ago
The financial sense comes down to how you are measuring the value provided, there's not a single objective way to do it. Systems that use QALYs still often end up considering organ transplants a viable treatment.
Qem 4y ago
People suffer accidents, and in absence of donation, perfectly fine organs would just rot with them in the grave. With transplants, we take these organs that would otherwise be wasted, and give other people maybe years or decades of additional productive life. The overall economic impact must be overwhelmingly positive to society as a whole.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  According to the web site Transplant Living, created by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the average total cost for the first year for a double lung transplant costs $657,800. And then you take immunosuppressive drugs the rest of your life. https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/The-cost-of-an-organ-transplant-9452184.php https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/The-cos... Also, bear in mind the FTA is about an artificially engineered pig heart, not a human heart.
cardy31 4y ago
Transplants exist in all universal healthcare systems around the world. Due to the scarcity of donor organs and the cost, candidates for transplantation are heavily scrutinized to make sure the organ is used in the best way possible. In relation to this article, part of the genetic engineering of the pig is to try to not just have a human not reject it, but possibly to end up having the pig heart be less likely to reject than a human heart. If the chance of rejection can be reduced, that means fewer drugs over time, and lower cost to a universal healthcare system. Also, reliable transplantation would reduce long term traditional healthcare costs. For example, in the US dialysis is basically the one procedure with universal healthcare. If kidney transplantation was readily available with a low risk of rejection it could actually save the US a lot of money at this point.
codezero 4y ago
Modern eye surgery exists because a few adventurous soldiers who had glass shards in their eyes let doctors experiment on them, same for gender affirming surgery. Originally it was done to reconstruct war wounds. We’ve always had science that existed on the bleeding edge and at the time only benefited a few people, but it’s our own ingenuity that brings these advances to a broader market and to benefit more people. There will always be a small amount of people willing to pay or be lab rats to squeeze an ounce of life or happiness out of their existence, socialized health care or not, and there will be those who recognize a way to expand that experiment into something safe and broadly acceptable.

Transplanting organs is an amazing feat of science. However, how does it make any financial sense? This one of those things that makes sense to cut when you start talking universal healthcare, right?

DoreenMichele 4y ago

It makes for razzle dazzle headlines. That seems to keep it alive. I wish there was more emphasis on helping people keep their original equipment from the manufacturer, so to speak.

sokoloff 4y ago

There are a lot of surgeries and novel treatments that don’t make any financial sense. We don’t make healthcare decisions on a P&L basis, but hopefully on some kind of cost vs expected benefit to the patient basis. Transplanting a kidney or liver into a 20 year old has more of my support than transplanting a heart into an 85 year old.

maxerickson 4y ago

The financial sense comes down to how you are measuring the value provided, there's not a single objective way to do it. Systems that use QALYs still often end up considering organ transplants a viable treatment.

Qem 4y ago

People suffer accidents, and in absence of donation, perfectly fine organs would just rot with them in the grave. With transplants, we take these organs that would otherwise be wasted, and give other people maybe years or decades of additional productive life. The overall economic impact must be overwhelmingly positive to society as a whole.

DoreenMichele 4y ago
According to the web site Transplant Living, created by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the average total cost for the first year for a double lung transplant costs $657,800. And then you take immunosuppressive drugs the rest of your life. https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/The-cost-of-an-organ-transplant-9452184.php https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/The-cos... Also, bear in mind the FTA is about an artificially engineered pig heart, not a human heart.

cardy31 4y ago

Transplants exist in all universal healthcare systems around the world. Due to the scarcity of donor organs and the cost, candidates for transplantation are heavily scrutinized to make sure the organ is used in the best way possible. In relation to this article, part of the genetic engineering of the pig is to try to not just have a human not reject it, but possibly to end up having the pig heart be less likely to reject than a human heart. If the chance of rejection can be reduced, that means fewer drugs over time, and lower cost to a universal healthcare system. Also, reliable transplantation would reduce long term traditional healthcare costs. For example, in the US dialysis is basically the one procedure with universal healthcare. If kidney transplantation was readily available with a low risk of rejection it could actually save the US a lot of money at this point.

codezero 4y ago

Modern eye surgery exists because a few adventurous soldiers who had glass shards in their eyes let doctors experiment on them, same for gender affirming surgery. Originally it was done to reconstruct war wounds. We’ve always had science that existed on the bleeding edge and at the time only benefited a few people, but it’s our own ingenuity that brings these advances to a broader market and to benefit more people. There will always be a small amount of people willing to pay or be lab rats to squeeze an ounce of life or happiness out of their existence, socialized health care or not, and there will be those who recognize a way to expand that experiment into something safe and broadly acceptable.