A study published by researchers from Harvard Medical School has found that persons who do not have health insurance are 20 times more likely to donate a liver or kidney for transplant than to receive one from another donor, says US News and World Report.

While this inequity between organ donors and recipients and their insurance status is easy to explain (one cannot receive a transplant without insurance as they would have no way to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills, but anyone can be an organ donor), it is hardly morally acceptable in a country where 46 million Americans do not have health insurance coverage. These persons will become the organ source for those who are lucky enough to have coverage through employers or Medicare/Medicaid.

As US News reported:

“The U.S. health care system denies adequate care to many of the uninsured during life. Yet, in death, the uninsured often give strangers the ultimate gift,” the authors wrote.

Although the solution to this problem is not obvious, knowing that such a disparity exists is a significant part of the battle. Now it’s time to come up with policy solutions (from those specific to organ transplants to universal health reform) to solve this problem among our nation’s most vulnerable–both the dying and those on the transplant list.

Summer Johnson, PhD