Organ Donations

[OutOfCrown]

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Ongoing dialysis treatments cost between $500-$1000 a week, depending on the number of treatments necessary per week, but the national average is ~$40,000 per year. The cost of kidney transplants, plus post-surgical care is ~$75,000, much less for better matches in the organ because they don't have to stay on anti-rejection drugs. Making that number $78,000 only decreases the Insurance companies ROI by a small amount.

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I have two data points for dialysis and one data point for a kidney transplant. I guess I can't argue against quoted national averages ... they are whatever they are quoted at. But those numbers seem to be quite low.

My experience is that dialysis runs $80K/year for the standard 3 times a week / 4 hours routine.

One of those two people has had a kidney transplant and the total all-in cost of that seems to have netted out to about $150K. Well, that was a living-related transplant, perhaps that's the difference (is the $75K for cadaveric transplants?)

Also, as far as I know, ALL kidney transplant patients are on anti-rejection drugs for life (for the life of the graft), as no match is perfect with the one sole exception of a living donation from an identical twin. The degree of matching may affect your dosage level, but you'll be on MyFortic or CelSep (sp?) or similar (and very expensive!) drugs forever.