According to the current rules, the VA only covers costs of transplant if both the donor and recipient are veterans. Mr. Carter’s proposed legislation will force the VA to cover transplant operations at both VA and non-VA facilities.
Jamie McBride, program manager for solid organ transplantation for the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, alleges that thousands of veterans have died waiting for transplants in recent years. Mr. McBride and has been working to draw attention to the issues with transplant policy since 2012.
“It is no secret that veterans who are cared for through the VA system have limited resources,” said Stuart J. Knechtle, MD, a liver transplant specialist at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Hospital. “When you ask them to move or travel to another state to be evaluated and live there before and after a liver transplant, that is not a practical reality for many patients.”
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