« on: April 21, 2016, 12:25:46 PM »
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.13827/abstractHealth Insurance Trends in United States Living Kidney Donors (2004 to 2015) James R. Rodrigue1,2,* andAaron Fleishman1DOI: 10.1111/ajt.13827American Journal of TransplantationAccepted Article (Accepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in future.)AbstractSome transplant programs consider the lack of health insurance as a contraindication to living kidney donation. Still, prior studies have shown that many adults are uninsured at time of donation. We extend the study of donor health insurance status over a longer time period and examine associations between insurance status and relevant sociodemographic and health characteristics. We queried the UNOS/OPTN registry for all living kidney donors (LKDs) between July 2004 and July 2015. Of the 53,724 LKDs with known health insurance status, 8,306 (16%) were uninsured at the time of donation. Younger (18 to 34 years old), male, minority, non-employed, less educated, non-married LKDs and those who were smokers and normotensive were more likely to not have health insurance at the time of donation. Compared to those with no health risk factors (i.e., obesity, smoking, hypertension, eGFR, proteinuria)(14%), LKDs with 1 (18%) or ≥2 (21%) health risk factors at the time of donation were more likely to be uninsured (P<0.0001). Among those with ≥2 health risk factors, blacks (28%) and Hispanics (27%) had higher likelihood of being uninsured compared to whites (19%; P<0.001). Study findings underscore the importance of providing health insurance benefits to all previous and future LKDs.
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Unrelated directed kidney donor in 2003, recipient and I both well.
620 time blood and platelet donor since 1976 and still giving!
Elected to the OPTN/UNOS Boards of Directors & Executive, Kidney Transplantation, and Ad Hoc Public Solicitation of Organ Donors Committees, 2005-2011
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