Kentucky man declared brain dead wakes up during organ harvesting

[Ms. Toad]

59. So much misinformation in your post.

I'm at a conference for my daughter's condition - which will one day require a liver transplant. There are people at this conference who have had as many as 5 transplants, because the autoimmune disease sometimes returns.

While there may be one or two millionaires in this bunch, most are not wealthy. For the most part, by the time they are sick enough to require a transplant they are on disability and on either Medicare or Medicaid. As for Medicare, if you have a supplement, your costs are limited to the terms of the particular supplement - but no more than around $7,000. If I were to need a liver transplant my medical costs would be limited to the deductible (under $300). Anti-rejection costs (under the drug coverage) would be costly - but there are programs to assist in coverage. On regular insurance, medical costs are limited to the out-of-pocket max for the year. The cap for Medicare Advantage plans is a little over $8,000. Annual drug costs on all Medicare plans is capped at $2,000 starting in 2025. Under the ACA , that is capped at $9,000 (combined medical and pharmaceutical). As a practical matter, most are capped far lower - between $3,000 and $4,000 is typical. My daughter makes about $40,000/year and has no savings. So no one who has insurance (ACA, work, Medicare Supplement, or Medicare Advantage) is going to pay 20%.

Wealth plays no direct role in who receives an organ - organ allocation is based solely on geographic location of the organ (and time from donor to recipient) and predicted life expectancy without an organ transplant. For livers, that is the MELD score. I'm not directly familiar with prediction tools for other organs. The indirect role is largely associated with the switch from being disabled (which gives access to Medicare and/or Medicaid) to being not disabled after transplant. Once you have recovered from the transplant, you are no longer legally disabled - and will be dependent on insurance to cover the anti-rejection costs which are life-long.