• PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Blood transfusions cost a patient $1k-$4k and none of that money is given back to a donor. If they want people to donate, they need to either make transfusions cheap, or pay the donors.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      The very least they could do would be to place a dollar value on the blood, and allow you to claim that value as a charitable donation, reducing your income tax burden.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      6 months ago

      Do you think it is Red Cross that is charging for transfusions?

      There’s plenty of reasons to dislike the ARC, but this isn’t one of them.

      Hell, if you’d stopped to think for half a second you’d realize all that will do is increase patient costs and endanger the blood supply.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        6 months ago

        What is the relevant difference between unpaid whole blood donation and paid plasma donation?

        I would argue that the price of blood is inflated due to low supply. Increasing the supply by paying blood donors could very well reduce the unit price of blood, and thus patient costs.

        I reject your insinuation that paying people for donating blood poses a threat to the blood supply. The risks to human life posed by an insufficient blood supply are far greater than the risks arising from compensating donors.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          6 months ago

          Your uninformed opinion on proven medical fact is irrelevant, especially when you don’t even know that paid plasma isn’t directly transfused into patients, unlike actual donated plasma, and you think there’s supply and demand in action for fucking blood transfusions.

          Paid plasma is used for the manufacture of various products, anything from makeup to clotting factors. Which, as it happens, are notable for being an increased infection risk over directly transfused blood because their sources can’t be trusted to tell the truth about their risk factors.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      I recently needed a blood transfusion. The bill was $7,300. I paid $650 after insurance covered/negotiated the rest.

      Just sharing a data point.

      • PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        I am a blood donor and a future organ donor. More than anything I am frustrated that someone should have to even be billed for $7,300 for something I gave to them for free. Our health system is rigged against the people it claims to benefit.

        • Drusas@kbin.social
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          6 months ago

          It is frustrating and needs to be better regulated, but thank you for being a donor.

          As someone with chronic anemia, it’s very disheartening to see all of these people say that they will not donate because their donation gets sold. They would rather people like me just die than have capitalism get involved with their donation?

          I’d rather pay than not get the blood, thank you very much. The solution is legislation, not to simply stop donating.

  • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Maybe if our healthcare industry wasn’t designed to profit capitalists off death and suffering, there would be no such shortage.

    I say this as someone who used to donate regularly until I learned how my donated blood was then being ransomed for private profit against sick people that need it.

    I won’t knowingly support such a system, where genuine charity (not that shit corporations do for tax breaks and marketing, that’s called a transaction) is bastardized and betrayed into serving the profit motive.

    • Tujio@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The system is fucked, yes. But the solution isn’t to stop donating. Doing that reduces supply and exacerbates the exact problems you’re describing.