Kidney waiting list hits 100k...kidney demand exceeds supply by 6:1

[Clark]

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/unfortunate-milestone-kidney-waiting-list-hits-100k-with-a-ban-on-compensation-kidney-demand-exceeds-supply-by-61/

Unfortunate milestone: Kidney waiting list hits 100k; with a ban on compensation, kidney demand exceeds supply by 6:1
Mark J. Perry

An unfortunate milestone was just reached – the number of desperate patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant operation just surpassed 100,000, according to updated data released this week from the US Department of Health & Human Services (see chart above).

Here are some other depressing facts illustrated in the chart above:

1. There were only 16,893 kidney transplant operations performed in 2013, an increase of 408 from the 16,485 operations in 2012, following a decrease of 328 operations from 2011 to 2012. Fewer kidney operations were performed last year than the peak of slightly more than 17,000 transplants in 2006.

2. While the annual number of kidney transplant operations has remained relatively flat since 2005 in a range between about 16,500 and 17,000, the number of registered patients on the waiting list continues to increase (see chart). From about 65,000 registered patients in 2005, the waiting list for a kidney transplant has increased by more than 50% over the last eight years, and by 35,000 patients, to the 100,019 patients who are currently on the kidney waiting list.

3. In 1988, there were fewer than two patients on the waiting list for a kidney for every transplant operation performed, and there are now almost six patients per transplant operation. Stated differently, in the late 1980s the number of transplant operations represented more than half of the number of patients on the kidney waiting list. Last year, the number of transplant operations accommodated only 17% of the patients on the waiting list.

4. In 2013, there were 4,307 registered candidates who died while waiting for a kidney (almost 12 per day), and another 3,085 candidates (more than 8 per day) who were removed from the list because they became too sick to survive a kidney transplant operation.

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