Proposal: two part payment scheme for live kidney donors

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7561.262-a

BMJ 2006;333:262 (29 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7561.262-a

Letter

Proposal: two part payment scheme for live kidney donors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Roff contributes to the debate over whether paymentshould be offered for kidney donors by citing various examplesthat dispel the myth that the value of life and limb cannotbe put into monetary terms.¹ We assume the acceptance of thegeneral principle of payment and propose a two part paymentscheme that maximises the incentive for organs to be donatedbut at the same time preserves an element of the gift relationshipin the transaction. This, like other methods of payment previouslyproposed, would entail the purchase of organs by the state andtheir allocation free of charge to patients on the basis ofexisting algorithms.^{2 3}

The first part of the scheme would be a fixed base payment financeddirectly by government. In principle, the cost savings associatedwith transplant v dialysis would indicate an upper limit toan amount that could be paid—one estimate is $90 . . . [Full text of this article]

Stephen Jan, senior health economist

George Institute for International Health, PO Box M201, Missenden Road, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia sjan@george.org.au

Mardi Thompson, chair

National Council of Consumer Advocates for Kidney Health Australia, PO Box 9993, Sydney, NSW 2001