I wanted to take a pass on this story. It’s gut wrenching from a personal perspective and reflects the difficulties of being humane in an era of very stretched medical budgets. But taking passes isn’t what SHS is all about, so here goes.
The NYT had a front page story yesterday describing the plight of an illegal/undocumented alien whose brother wants to donate a kidney for transplant. He can obtain kidney dialysis, but due to his illegal/undocumented status, no doctor or hospital will perform the surgery. From “For Illegal Immigrant, Line is Drawn at Transplant:”
For nearly two years, the brothers and their supporters have been hunting for a way to make the transplant happen. Their journey has taken them through a maze of conflicting laws, private insurance conundrums and ethical quandaries, back to the national impasse between health care and immigration policies. The waiter’s boss sought private insurance, she and the brothers said, speaking on the condition that their names be withheld for fear of provoking immigration authorities. The Catch-22: for the first year, the waiter, called Angel, would get no coverage for his “pre-existing condition,” nor would he receive the dialysis that keeps him alive and able to work four days a week.
Obamacare doesn’t cover illegal immigrants, so that would not change even if the law goes into full effect. Which makes sense from a policy perspective. Talk about a magnet for people to enter the country without permission.
This, to me, was the kicker:
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