RSSIs UNOS Rolling Along With Obamacare’s Death Panels?
J.J. Jackson | February 25, 2011
If I say UNOS, what do you think of? Probably nothing. That acronym means absolutely nothing to most Americans. UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, is the group that coordinates organ transplants nationwide.
News is that the UNOS, those overseeing the nation’s organ transplant network, have announced that they are considering changes to the way they distribute kidney’s to patients in need of transplants. In a report publish on knowabouthealth.com, a member of the panel explained the proposal:
“Right now, if you’re 77 years old and you’re offered an 18-year-old’s kidney, you get it,” said Dr. Richard N. Formica, a transplant physician at Yale University and a member of the panel that wrote the proposed policy. “The problem is that you’ll die with that kidney still functioning, while a 30-year-old could have gotten that kidney and lived with it to see his kids graduate from college.“
Who UNOS is may be a little confusing. They are a non-profit group. But they are also government contractors.
As the same article points out:
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a Richmond-based private nonprofit group contracted by the federal government to coordinate organ allocation said the plan has not been presented to the UNOS board as a policy proposal and the kidney committee has until April 1 to get public comments.
Emphasis mine.
In 1984 Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act which established the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. That department currently contracts with UNOS to provide services.
So, here you have contractors for an agency of government possibly adopting rules and procedures that would (even admitted by a member of UNOS) make age a factor in how you are treated. As Dr. Formica stated, older people really shouldn’t get the organs of younger people even if it would save their lives because, well, a younger patient would live longer. Pray tell what if this 77-year-old just happens to die because he or she is deemed too old to receive the organ that is currently available and a younger patient not in nearly as critical condition gets the kidney instead? Isn’t that in essence the “Death Panels” that Sarah Palin once talked of and which sent the left into orbit over?
Why, yes, it does. What we have here, most basically, is a federally funded group of individuals making life or death decisions for patients. Decisions, which I remind you, just so happen to fit into previously established patterns set forth by the government and would help to further policies that they have expressly wanted.
First off, I was unaware of any clause in our federal constitution which gives the federal government the authority to oversee this sort of activity. While I have no problem with there being a group that handles this sort of thing considering the number of hospitals and patients in need of transplants around the country, I do have a problem with it being a government, or even a pseudo-government entity (i.e a private company receiving federal funding). I doubt that UNOS, being government contractors, is going to do things the federal government does not approve of. If they did they would probably lose their contract.
While UNOS receives much of its funding from fees for member institutions, 8% of the current of the current contract is direct federal money. This is according to an October 3rd, 2005 press release from UNOS. That contract, if completed for a full seven years, is worth $198 million. So the government’s share is a not at all paltry $15.84 million. Obviously that money is needed to operate this organization (although not necessarily needed to operate any such organization, just this particular one for whatever reason) otherwise UNOS would not be getting that money.
Now I know what you might be thinking. But 92% comes from non-government funding and these “member institutions”. So that is not too bad and not enough to make UNOS automatically in the back pocket HHS right? Ok, really? Riddle me this then Batman. If UNOS were to lose its government contract, which would, it just so happens, expire next year in October of 2012, and no longer have control over this system, then how many “member institutions” would it have to collect fees from for a service they no longer provide? Just asking the question. I suspect the answer is not many, if any, at all.
I am a big fan of organ donation. My wife formerly worked for the organ procurement and transplant authority here in Western Pennsylvania, CORE. I have an organ donor sticker on my driver’s license. I even have questioned some of the weird things, at least in my mind, I have heard happening with regards to how organs are given to potential donors. Based on stories I have heard I think that some changes are needed to this system.
But what causes my ears to prick up is when a Doctor associated with UNOS actually starts talking about how older patients may be overlooked for certain organs simply based on the fact that their useful life may be nearing and end and that a younger patient would be more worthy because their life could be prolonged longer. What bothers me is Dr. Formica’s laser beam like focus on age as a determining factor.
That bothers me because the government has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that older Americans are a burden on the health care system; a health care system paid for mostly by the government when it comes to older Americans through Medicare. So forgive me if I am skeptical about the ultimate motives here.
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J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at LibertyReborn.com (Digital Fingerprint: libertyreborn123456789)
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