Medicare Already Has a Death Panel in Place

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Okay, I am being over dramatic, but this is scary. People that are on Medicare and receive a kidneytransplant only have about three years of life remaining, per thedirection of Medicare. Yes, Medicare will pay for the transplant,but after three years on immunosuppressants, Medicare pulls the plugand will no longer pay for the immunosuppressants. If the patientcan pay for these, they are in the minority.
Between 1993 and 1995, Medicare didraise the length of time for immunosuppressants support from one yearto the present three years. The one exception to this is for thoseover the age of 65 and that have work-related disabilities. They areeligible for lifetime immunosuppressants.
While this is technically not a deathpanel, it is completely arbitrary and governed by those in charge ofMedicare. This policy is the only one of its kind amongindustrialized countries where state-funded life-time coverage ofimmunosuppressant drugs is provided to all kidney transplantrecipients. It is therefore not surprising that long-term survivalrates are substantially higher than in the United States.
This may now explain why I have hadfriends that were on dialysis that stopped their treatment, chose thetime of their death than get their transplant, and take the regimenof immunosuppressants. They would have been limited to three years. This does not seem appropriate for this to happen in the USA.
Another argument against this practiceis that transplant kidneys are lifesaving gifts made possible byliving donors or by families of deceased persons and are of immensevalue to society. The current policy undermines the value of thisgift and does jeopardize the organ-donor system. Providing lifelongimmunosuppressant drug coverage would restore value to the system.
The current legislation before Congressseeks to correct this problem, but faces many foes and may end uplike a similar attempt that was defeated in the Democratic Congressof 2009. The current bill (H.R. 2969) would correct this harmfulpolicy and bring the U.S. Inline with the rest of the industrializedcountries.
This is probably the reason that thisarticle that I included in this blog is so important and the medicalprofession is determined to succeed in making this happen. Havingkidney transplants without immunosuppressants is one way of takingMedicare out of the equation on immunosuppressants.