Right now, more than one hundred thousand Americans are on the organ transplant list. Last year, 5,600 people on that list died waiting for a kidney, liver, heart, or another life-saving body part.
However, 28,000 donor organs that could be used in transplants are not recovered each year, and 17,000 of those organs are kidneys. This is a deadly and incredibly expensive problem — the government spends over $36 billion annually on dialysis alone.
A report from The Economist estimated that, “If the bottom three-quarters of OPOs [regional organ procurement organizations] matched the top performers’ recovery rates in 2021, about 6,000 more organs would have been transplanted….. That same Economist report cited an OPO in Arkansas that just never picked up donor phone calls outside of the 9-5 workday.
OPOs are paid based on a cost-reimbursement basis, in part through Medicare. So OPO CEOs have spent money on Rose Bowl parade floats, private planes, and golf outings, and written it all off as a legitimate business expense funded by taxpayer money.
Source: Matthew Yglesias
Missing: A failure to propose a market for kidneys.