Transplant Tourism and Life Prolonging Services Affect on the Economy - Essay Example

Transplant Tourisms Effect on the Economy  Transplant tourism refers to the practice of travelling from one country to another for the sake of organ transplantation. Indeed, this tread is very rampant in the United States of America where patients travel to India, China, or the Philippine for solid organ transplantation (Fitzgibbons, 2012). This is because of the shortage of available organs, increase of patients, and the lack of donors. Hence, many patients result to transplant tourism as the best option.

However, there has been critics of this practice and the although American doctors do not condone all of the practices associated with transplant tourism they have to ensure that the patients get adequate and reasonable health care regardless of whether the transplantation was performed in the U.S. or abroad. Moreover, organ transplant is more expensive in America than in foreign countries like India and Jordan. Hence, many patients opt for tourist transplants. Subject to the many tourist transplants and the complications associated with this practice, the economy of U.

S accrues huge financial responsibilities that negatively affect its stability. Indeed, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) reports that more than 400 patients received transplants abroad with 75% of those taking place between 2004 and 2006. Additionally, according to WHO, in 2005, 66 000-kidney transplants, 21 000 liver transplants, and 6 000-heart transplants took place in industrialized and emerging economies (WHO, 2012). In America, more than 105,000 patients await tourist transplant while more than 15,000 patients await a liver transplant.

These transplant tourists are prone to poor organ matching, unhealthy donors, sub-standard surgical techniques, and post transplant infections upon return to the U.S (American Society of Nephrology, 2012). Since these patients are, still American citizens the U.S government via the U.S. health care institutions has a mandate to offer requisite health services to these patients. Though these health care institutions are sometimes reluctant to offer these services, the U.S Medical associations have recently devised mechanisms of handling and caring for transplant tourists.

Indeed, the government suffers economically by hiring many American transplant professionals to attend the tourist transplant from abroad. In addition, the medication used to regulate, control, and treat the post transplantation complications raises the health care costs in the United States. For example, a patient in the U.S went for transplantation in China and came back to America. Three months later the patient developed complications and the patient had to seek for follow-up care to maintain the immunosuppressive medication.

Additionally, the patient developed septic shock that required three additional hospitalizations. All these medical procedures bombard the health care system with additional costs hence degrading the economy of the country. Apart from the costly procedure of organ transplantation, there are life-prolonging services that facilitate the actual healing. These services may include dialysis for kidney failures, medication, and treatments on various transplants. These services are very expensive subject to the professionalism required and the cost of maintaining the machines.

This increases the health expenditure as the government sets up insurance covers for these services, pays the medical professionals, and the drugs, which affects the economy negatively. ReferencesAmerican Society of Nephrology (2008). The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. CJASN. Retrieved from http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/3/5/1227.abstract Fitzgibbons, S (2012). Transplant Tourism: How Dangerous Is It? American Association of Kidney Patients. Retrieved from http://www.aakp.org/aakp-library/Transplant-Tourism/ WHO (2012).

WHO proposes global agenda on transplantation. WHO. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr12/en/index.html