Last month, Goodyear leukemia patient Mark Price became a poster child for the impact of budget cuts to AHCCCS after his doctor found donors who matched his bone marrow a day after Price lost coverage. Price's story gained attention nationally and an anonymous donor later covered all costs for his surgery.
Because bone marrow comes from living donors, the donated marrow was still able to be used at a late date.
It's a different story for liver-transplant patients.
The chances of finding a liver donor are slim because these transplants usually are livers from deceased donors and the demand far exceeds the supply.
If a donor is found, the surgery must take place in less than a day.
AHCCCS patients who lost transplant coverage have been allowed to stay on the waiting list, but when a match is found they are faced with a ticking clock to come up with up to half a million dollars to pay for the procedure.
Francisco's story
Monday night, Felix's wife received a call from a family friend whose wife was nearing death and wanted to donate her liver to Felix. Their organs matched, and doctors prepared Felix for a surgery set for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center gave Felix until that time to come up with the money for his surgery. His surgery, liver transplant due to complications from hepatitis C, was one AHCCCS stopped covering Oct. 1.
Despite efforts to reach out to the media and the public, the family could not raise the money. Felix was discharged from the hospital and his liver went to the next patient on the waiting list.
"It was his day today. If we had the money, someone to pay for it, he would have received the liver," said Flor, Francisco's wife. "How can people make this decision? How does one person have the right to decide who's going to live and who's not?"
There are at least 23 AHCCCS patients at Banner Good Samaritan waiting for transplants, hospital spokesman Bill Byron said.
Byron said patients must meet three criteria before receiving transplants: they must be healthy enough for a transplant procedure, they must have a network of people who can support them after surgery and they must be able to afford the surgery.
Patients who can't afford the surgery after finding a match are placed on a hold list until they can pay for it.
Flor Felix has applied to the National Transplant Assistance Fund so that the family can raise money for her husband's surgery. Byron said doctors believe Francisco will be healthy enough to receive a transplant if another match comes along within the next year or two.
According to United Network for Organ Sharing, a national non-profit that is contracted with the federal government to manage the U.S. organ-transplant system, the average wait time for a liver is 796 days. Francisco has been on the waiting list since April and only got this chance so quickly because the family friend wanted to donate to him.
AHCCCS cuts
Legislators earlier this year decided to stop paying for certain transplants based on analyses by AHCCCS.
Certain kinds of pancreas, lung and bone-marrow transplants are among those no longer covered.
AHCCCS stopped covering liver transplants for hepatitis C because of the procedure's low long-term success rate.
According to AHCCCS, studies showed that when a patient with hepatitis C receives a liver transplant, the virus can infect the new liver within 24 hours. The virus returning is the No. 1 cause of the new liver failing, according to the analysis.
But according to the national transplant organization, transplant is the best treatment option for patients with end-stage liver failure.
Political battle
Following the public reports of Price's transplant story last month, state lawmakers asked Gov. Jan Brewer to reconsider the cuts. Tuesday, a group of Democrats asked again.
But Brewer's spokesman, Paul Senseman, said the governor would not consider a special legislative session unless someone proposes how the state would make up for the $1 billion gap in the AHCCCS budget.
Senseman blames federal health-care mandates for the program's financial struggles. The federal government requires states to cover many things under the program, but transplants are not one of them.
"On multiple fronts we remain hopeful that our ability to design a sustainable and flexible service program would be restored" now that there is a Republican majority in Congress and Arizona is a part of a 20-state lawsuit against the federal government for requiring all Americans to have health insurance by 2014, Senseman said.
AHCCCS cuts were made before the federal health-care reform act passed, said Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix. Sinema said Brewer should use federal stimulus money to reinstate transplant cuts.
Democratic state Rep. Matt Heinz, a physician at the Tucson Medical Center, said it is contradictory to blame AHCCCS cuts on federal mandates while reasoning that transplant coverage could be cut because it is not federally required.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he would like to revisit transplant cuts when the Legislature is back in session in January.
by
Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Nov. 17, 2010 12:00 AM
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/11/17/20101117ahcccs-budget-cuts-phoenix-man-liver-transplant.html#ixzz15mQYE6JS
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-17-arizona-cuts-liver-transplant_N.htm
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/11/17/20101117ahcccs-budget-cuts-phoenix-man-liver-transplant.html
Arizona governor Jan Brewer had the gall to blame “Obamacare.”_______________________________________
I keep getting back to this:
ReplyDeleteIn the richest country on earth, there is no reason why our entire population cannot be covered by a single-payer, government-funded health insurance system.
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
Odd how I keep going back to the reality of losing our children too.
How is this not criminal? I think Brewer should have had to go to the hospital, look this man in the eye in front of television cameras, and say, "I believe your life isn't worth this much money."
ReplyDeleteHell, I'd really like her to have to add the rest of the truth: "I could personally pay for your surgery, but I don't give a fuck. So go die; your life is worth nothing to me." All still looking him right in the face, all on live television.
Single payer is the ONLY way. Stop fuddling around like chickens with their heads cut off, DO IT, stupidos!!
ReplyDeleteGood grief, how long has this been an issue, & how many people have died?
Oh dear, "government-funded health insurance system." Doesn't that sorta kinda sound like that dirty word...*whispers*...Socialism?
Excellent idea. We need to expose this every chance that we get, we need to fight as long & hard as we can, & never give up or give in.
ReplyDeleteOh my; I think one would have far more chances of getting a transplant if needed if they came here, became a citizen and then got it, why is it so important in the US of A that one should $$$$ Pay through the nose for their own life basically. You would be able to have one here on Medicare when an organ becomes available from a donor, which most are asked and encouraged to do now days.
ReplyDeleteAn organ is a very valuable thing not to be wasted no matter what it is, we here could improve our rate though I feel
Oh, Lester. People are dying in the U.S. for lack of medical care! Not just transplants, medications that make the difference between life or death, & they have to choose between these & food, or a roof over their heads.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are determined to repeal the 'watered down' health care reform that we have. But, the politicians will never give up the PREMIUM insurance coverage that they have.
Taxpayers will pay for our war criminal ex-President Bush's insurance for the next ten years. (He'll also get $96,000. a year, travel expenses & who knows what...as if he needs it.)
The handwriting has been on the wall for many years...we've been owned & controlled by the 1% rich.
Health care, like justice, is available to all who can pay for it.
ReplyDeleteFor others there are Professionals in training.
We turn head over heels to reduce road deaths in their hundreds here while accepting Health induces deaths in their thousands.
I agree.
ReplyDeleteBut, I'm not sure what you mean by "We turn head over heels to reduce road deaths in their hundreds here while accepting Health induces deaths in their thousands." ??
It is criminal.
ReplyDeleteIt is state sanctioned MURDER.
And we are ALL made to watch!
Brewer is a piece of work, isn't she?
And I like your fantasy of what should happen... Even as I think of his wife and children.
Sad, that.
And totally unnecessary too.
Chickens hell- Cockroaches live much longer without their heads.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans must be made to believe that Public Option is THEIR idea, or it will never be acceptable, or feasible.
Tell me how to accomplish that, and I will do it.
________________________________________________________
From here: http://flintville.multiply.com/journal/item/864/HealthCare_Mad
You will have to do your own math- It was posted on September 15th '09
THESE ARE NUMBERS OF USA DEATHS PER YEAR
BY CAUSE:
12,000 -- unnecessary surgery
7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals
20,000 -- other errors in hospitals
80,000 -- infections in hospitals
106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes! These are IN ADDITION TO the 22,000 people that die every year because they do not have insurance
Using the figures above, that is 677 Americans every day.
________________________________________________________
That STILL breaks down to 28 people EVERY HOUR!
Socialist?
Don't even get me started on that one.
But I do know that people are still fighting over The Pledge of Allegiance- THAT was written by a socialist.
Go figure.
XOXO
Me
ReplyDeleteNot only expose it for what it is, but to make it viral somehow.
Again, tell me how to do this, and I will do it.
One would only have to click on my healthcare tag and figure out that it is vastly better for our longevity to move to Canada, or The UK for our healthcare needs.
ReplyDeleteWe need not only to be AWARE of the rest of the world, but to take our leads from it.
And good grief, why would that be a bad thing.
Again I am being angered over this healthcare bs.
One would think that after all this time, after all the words, and after all the facts that people (Americans opposed to) would wake up already.
I think that, until everyone loses someone near and dear to their heart, that will not happen.
So what's it gonna take to wake us up?
XOXO
Me
ReplyDeleteAgain, please check the link I posted in my reply.
Do I eat, or do I make sure that my daughter receives the care she needs to live?
A no-brainer for me. Though the savings still do not justify the hotel room I would need while she receives another 2 surgeries; *IF* it comes to that.
Still, a hotel room is cheaper than driving back and forth every day.
That same 1% own the darn hotel!
What a tangled web...
XOXO
me
ReplyDeleteOMGod, that is TRUE!
... And very very sickening...
XOXO
Me
ReplyDeleteDitto.
I am afraid I am missing this too.
And Bill always knows what is right.
Okay to link, by the way?
ReplyDeleteBut...but...but....the Democrats will pull the plug on Grandma....~rolls eyes~…………my premiums have gone up faster than my pay raises....told the doc....when it comes down to utilities or medicine, I'm keeping the lights on. They talk about Medicare/Medicaid...the working poor and middle class are SOL also.
ReplyDeleteCould this be what Bill was referring to?
ReplyDeleteTHESE ARE NUMBERS OF USA DEATHS PER YEAR
BY CAUSE:
12,000 -- unnecessary surgery
7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals
20,000 -- other errors in hospitals
80,000 -- infections in hospitals
106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!
Until man accepts there isnt a price for a life, we will continue to make life too expensive to live.
ReplyDeleteJames, if human life isn't the definition of "beyond price," then the phrase means nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase means nothing anymore, but to the person living it, their family and friends, (if if they're lucky).
ReplyDeleteWhen the big bad wind blows, even they can't do anything to help.
As requested http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1269991.stm Quote--The House of Commons public accounts committee says up to 5,000 patients die from a hospital-acquired infection every year, costing the NHS £1 billion.
ReplyDeleteMany of these infections could be prevented, say the MPs.
My local. http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/02/13/health_brokenshire_feature.shtml
This is a part of that which Scootch2 indicates for the USA.
Our road deaths are a portion of those caused by Hospitals.
Protocol, Cheap Labour, Contracted out Services etc all combine to make an astronomic number.
Thank you, Bill. I wanted to be sure before I said more.
ReplyDeleteThis is a travesty beyond comprehension. The very last place we want to be when we're ill, is in a hospital.
I would like you to know that "Comments deleted by the author" ARE NOT TRUE.
ReplyDeleteMy friend scootch2, Lucija, has had her account deleted by Multiply. She, and others from a private group have been stalked for some time by a psychotic. I can only assume he was able to delete her account.
If you receive ANY PMs with which you aren't familiar, do NOT open them. He/she sends videos with a virus. This is far worse. All of her posts and comments have been deleted by MULTIPLY.
Please help by sending reports to Customer Service as I have.
Her friends are angry, as they should be. She has always been a very good friend, and contributor to Multiply.
I have gotten two of them over the past 3 weeks however my PC would not accept them.
ReplyDeleteAnna I am going to send you a PM though
ReplyDeletePlease let me know which group?
I notice we have a few in common.
sighs........Arizona politics makes me sick to my stomach......honestly, when this story broke I cried.....Brewer and her devils advocates suck, I truly believe that she and hers are trying to get every low to middle income family out of this state. As you know I work closely within my political party to stop her insanity, the problem we have here is our own people wont get involved, its like pulling teeth to get these Dems out to vote., We must stand in unison in numbers to make changes....kids care here for children also took a huge cut.....
ReplyDeletexoxoxoxoxox to you my Annie.......I've never stop fighting for health insurance for all!