Budget cuts in Arizona have reduced the financing for expensive organ transplants, which is leaving some low-income patients staring at preventable deaths.
The New York Times reports that in October, the state’s version of the Medicaid program stopped funding certain types of transplants, which means that roughly 100 current patients in Arizona may have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for life-saving procedures.
For some, this is an impossibility, which turns the budget cuts into something resembling a death sentence. The Times detailed the case of Francisco Felix, a 32-year-old father of four in need of a liver transplant. A dying family friend of his had signed up to donate her liver, but when Felix’s fund-raising efforts fell short of the $200,000 needed to pay for the operation, the liver went to someone else. Before the budget cuts, the state would have paid for the operation.
“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives,” said Felix’s wife, Flor. “You just can’t do that.”
Many doctors express similar sentiments.
“I appreciate the need for budget restraints,” said Dr. Andrew M. Yeager, the director of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at the Arizona Cancer Center. “But when one looks at a potentially life-saving treatment…cuts like this are shortsighted and sad.”
Dr. Emmanuel Katsanis, a bone marrow transplant expert at the University of Arizona, agreed. “Something needs to be done,” he said. “There’s no doubt that people aren’t going to make it because of this decision. What do you tell someone? You need a transplant but you have to raise the money?”
The outcry over patients such as Felix has led to a movement to reverse the elimination of publicly financed transplants.
In the meantime, Felix and others are turning to a Pennsylvania nonprofit group called NTAF, formerly known as the National Transplant Assistance Fund, for help in raising the cash.
But when one looks at a potentially life-saving treatment…cuts like this are shortsighted and sad