Hi,
I am new to this forum and this is my first post.
My brother has failing kidneys. He is a Canadian, married to a US citizen, and they now live in the US. His kidneys began failing when he was living up here in Canada about two years ago. I offered at that time to donate one of my kidneys. My brother was in between jobs in the tech sector at the time and was looking for work and so didn't want to go through surgery at that time. He didn't put his name in the Canadian kidney registry, so I still have not even been tested to see if I am eligible (my brother has his priorities screwed up, as far as I'm concerned, but that is a whole other matter).
He got a job in the US and moved there a year and a half ago and his kidneys stabilized for a time. Now his kidneys aren't doing so well and to make matters worse, he is longer working for the tech company with their Cadillac HMO, but is now self-employed with a slightly less than Cadillac insurer.
I am kind of pissed at him for not getting the donation up here where at least we would have both been under our public insurance. I have no idea what I would be covered for if I were to go down to the US to give him my kidney. As far as I know, our public system would not cover much, if anything, to donate in the US and I cannot get private travel insurance to cover voluntarily surgery. I am really stressed out, because he needs my kidney, but I am in my 50s and I have just gone through major back surgery and I don't want to go bankrupt before I retire. My wife is dead against me going down there to donate. I understand her frustration at my brother for not dealing with this two years ago and her fear that we will be stuck with a massive hospital bill, but this is my brother.
I'm not writing this to ask people here what I should do, but just if people have heard of similar situations. It is really hard to find out what US insurers will cover for foreign kidney donors coming into the US. It's also complicated by the fact that, while my brother has a green card, he is not a US citizen. Any information would be really helpful.
Cheers,
MJS