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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (490394)	6/24/2009 1:14:30 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570750

About 6,000 liver transplants are now done each year in the U.S., but the waiting list for organs averages 17,000. I had a friend who received one of the early liver transplants in the early 70s. At this time they were pretty much just by one physician (Starzell) who was then in Denver. At one time, he was the longest living survivor (5 yrs) of the surgery. It was highly experimental, and would NEVER have been considered for insurance reimbursement. Had we had Obama care back then, my friend would never have received that early transplant because there would be no hope the government would ever pay for them. And my friend who received one late last year would never have benefited from the early research. Today, a liver transplant costs 300-400k, and annual maintenance runs $20,000. It was 1991 before Medicare approved payment for adult liver transplants. Britains NHS paid for its first liver transplant in 2005. More than 30 years after my friend's procedure.