Arizona Budget Cuts Kill Money For Organ Transplants

For some Arizona residents, the massive fiscal crisis gripping their state and others has put their lives at risk, NPR reports.

Thanks to a $1.5-billion budget deficit, Arizona has had to make some tough choices, including cuts to certain liver and heart transplants paid for by the state, according to NPR. Last spring, Arizona's GOP-led legislature instituted the cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's version of Medicaid. Sacrificing the life-saving procedures saves the state an estimated $4.5 million annually, or 0.3 percent of its present deficit.

In some cases, the state has chose to deny coverage for procedures that were already approved. Phoenix's KPHO 5, a CBS affiliate, reports that Francisco Felix, a Phoenix-area resident who is suffering from Hepatitis C, was actually in a hospital surgery room when doctors informed him that his liver transplant wouldn't be approved.

A family friend donated the liver Felix was set to receive, but his family is unable to come up with the $200,000 needed to pay for the procedure. Francisco's wife Flor told KPHO: "The liver is gone because we don't have the money. That's why we lost this opportunity. But we have hope that something good is going to come."

In October, the Associated Press reported that Phoenix's Mark Price, a former armored-truck delivery worker, was likewise refused the life-saving bone marrow operation he needed. "We need to save lives and knowing the funding is not there for me -- it's pretty hard to deal with," he told the AP.

But the cuts don't stop there. The AP noted last month that Arizona has cut "coverage for occupational and speech therapy, insulin pumps, hearing aids and emergency dental care" and "funding for wellness exams, but mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies remain covered."

Arizona has seen dramatic cutbacks in a host of social services. In Mesa, the state's largest school district had its budget slashed by as much as $65 million, which could amount to a 15 to 20 percent hit to its operating budget, the East Valley Tribune notes.

And some 8,200 families will be unable to receive temporary cash assistance after the state cut the time limit for those benefits from 60 months to 36, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports.

Comments

[imadarable]

12:07 PM on 12/02/2010

Budget Deficit? Im wondering how many billions of dollars of corporate stocks and holdings the Incorporated State of Arizona has, bought and paid for by taxpayer money, and reported in their CAFR that nobody bothers to look at. They take the taxpayer money, invest it into the market, and keep the profits for themselves. I wonder how many transplants they could pay for if they liquidated just one or two of their holdings. Hmmm.

[FJ 1200]

01:21 PM on 12/01/2010

Why isn't MSNBC shouting this story every hour? Show them for the hypocrites they are.

[July August]

05:35 PM on 11/29/2010

Wow. There are only two stem cell transplant facilities available in the entire USA for Multiple Sclerosis patients. There an an estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. with Multiple Sclerosis. Both programs use the patient's own stem cells, so there are no embryonic stem cells involved. A procedure that could free MS patients from lives of severe disability is almost entirely unavailable to the vast majority of patients who need it. There is ONE cure out there & people can't get it - & if they can access it, they can't afford it! There IS NO OTHER CURE. No other treatment or medication, NOTHING OUT THERE, stops the progress of Multiple Sclerosis. The majority of medications on the market have only a 30% chance of slowing progression! That means there's still a 70% chance of not slowing progression, even if you're on a medication! I hope and pray I can get my insurance to approve payment for part of this treatment, and that I can raise sufficient funds to pay for the remainder. My other option is unthinkable - progressive disability until I am unable to walk or even care for myself. Imagine knowing you have a disease that will lead to severe disability, knowing there is a cure out there, and not being able to reach it. I'm in Arizona, and I'm terrified. I was approved for AHCCCS in September, then this month received a letter saying they were denying coverage retroactively, and rescinding authorizations for care they'd already

[July August]

06:17 PM on 11/29/2010

I'm in Arizona. I need a transplant. I was approved for AHCCCS in September, then this month received a letter saying they were denying coverage retroactiv ely, and rescinding authorizations for care they'd already approved. Please see my blog "Too Late to Save the Brain" at http://youmethimwhere.blogspot.com/. Whether I get a transplant or not, I will go down fighting. I was a nurse for 20 years, and have worked for health care reform since 1991. It's crushing to see it come down to this. Again, please see my blog! http://youmethimwhere.blogspot.com/

[AyeChart]

03:22 PM on 11/19/2010

You mean there isn't enough money to pay for everything?  What a shock.

Now the drive starts to really really REALLY bankrupt the country, because they'll want to load the "mentally ill" onto the backs of the taxpayers, and some people (see DrudgeReport) are calculating 1 in 5 Americans are mentally ill.

That approximates, by the way, the number of far-lefties in the population.

'1 IN 5' AMERICANS MENTALLY ILL
Drudgereport

[annieooo]

02:19 PM on 11/19/2010

Republican, teabagger death panels.

[DonMadrid1500]

03:37 AM on 11/19/2010

Apparently, Arizona is also into killing hero dogs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/19dog.html?scp=2&sq=dog&st=cse

[LDS50]

07:14 PM on 11/18/2010

"Put their lives at risk"? Understatement.

[Max Shaw]

04:52 PM on 11/18/2010

Next step for Arizona: Making the illegal immigrants sign up as organ donors...

[LDS50]

07:15 PM on 11/18/2010

Don't give them ideas.

[imayes]

03:40 PM on 11/18/2010

So THAT'S where the Death Panels are!

[HowardScottPearlman]

12:51 PM on 11/18/2010

God help us all if heartless McCain had become President !

[Ron Burley]

11:41 AM on 11/18/2010

A year ago, many rightwing pundits were warning that the Obama health care bill would lead decision-making "death panels." It didn't. However, real-life death panels have now actually been created by Republicans in Arizona, declaring which life-saving medical procedures will get funded and which won't. (Psst... don't listen to what they say, watch what they do!)

[Truth In Voting]

11:34 AM on 11/18/2010

This might sound offensive, but bear in mind I live here in Arizona...

We get what we vote for, plain and simple. I feel for Francisco Felix and Mark Price, and others who find themselves in the same boat, but Arizonans, as a whole, overwhelmingly vote Republican and have for decades now. The state legislature (which passed these cuts) has been Republican-controlled for so long.

Tragedies like this will keep happening, one by one, to residents of this state. But you can't vote in huge "small-government, fiscal Republican" majorities for years and then want them to be compassionately Democrat when you need it.

The economy and education are horrible here. Sadly, stories like Felix and Price's happen too frequently here. But you can't vote in a legislature like Arizona and then wish they'd vote like a legislature in Massachusetts when you're the one that needs help. This "I got mine, screw you leechers" mentality here works until you're the one getting screwed; tax-cutting small governments simply can't afford to save the life of every Tom, Dick, and Harry. You want a government that will help, you should've voted for it. Instead, we vote in legislators like Arizona House Appropriations Chairman Kavanaugh who runs as a far-right small-government candidate and said "We were told they were totally ineffective," about voting to cut bone marrow transplants.

Well, we got what we voted for.

[July August]

05:43 PM on 11/29/2010

I'm in Arizona as well, and I didn't vote this conservative state government in - neither did my friends or family. I suspect these transplant non-recipients voted otherwise as well. You are exactly right about the "I got mine, screw you" mentality. I believe those are people who are fortunate enough to have decent paying jobs and good health insurance. I have lived all over the U.S., and Arizona is by far the most racist, selfish, ignorantly conservative state I've ever seen. When I first got here, I looked around and wanted to flee in terror. Then I had hope that I could stick around and perhaps together we could work towards change. I don't know what to think anymore. And I've already heard it 100 times, "Take your liberal (insert obscenity here) back to California," so you don't have to repeat it, those of you who are foul mouthed and short on critical thinking skills.

[maninal]

11:26 AM on 11/18/2010

117,094 millionaires in Arizona... Arizona's corporate tax structure consists of a flat rate of 6.968% on all corporate income. That rate ranks 26th highest ....If your income range is $150,001 and over, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 4.54%. Enough said

[atexasdem]

11:35 AM on 11/18/2010

Arizona wants more rich people and less poor people. That's exactly why their tax structure is the way it is. It's all part of "trickle down". Get more rich people, they will need more servants, deport the illegals so the native Arizonans can get jobs as servants to the new rich Arizona people. You think that's fantasy? That's exactly what "trickle down" is and how it works.

[Truth In Voting]

11:54 AM on 11/18/2010

....Ah yes, the "trickle down" economics voodoo. Funny how the bluest states have more rich people, less poor people, less people living in poverty, and higher revenues in their state economies (nearly all the east and west coast states, plus bluestates in Mid-America like Minnesota, Illinois, Montana, etc). While chasing this trickle-down dream, our state's gotten exactly the opposite of more rich and less poor; the number of rich people didn't really expand, they just got a lot richer, but the poor grew and became even poorer.

I personally think it's Darwinian justice because the state wouldn't even know what to do if less people became more and more people became wealthier, it'd probably just be an even bigger tax base for the state legislature to squander, so this might be for the best.

[smurrayesq]

08:39 PM on 11/19/2010

Has anyone noticed that Walmart has been running an ad trying to convince everyone that working there Is the best job ever? (Low Prices - low wages)

[Bluesue]

11:25 AM on 11/18/2010

Where's the outrage from the Right to Life people? They have absolutely no concern after a fetus is born, in fact, they will work relentlessly against anything that will ease the pain and suffering of those already born.

[atexasdem]

11:36 AM on 11/18/2010

You don't understand "right to life". Life is only precious while it's INSIDE the mother. Once it's outside, it's on it's own.

[Eris23Skidoo]

06:33 PM on 11/18/2010

Not to mention the obsessive desire to control the sex lives of women.

[Eric4969]

11:09 AM on 11/18/2010

I'll put it to you this way if 1 of my Kids get sick like this and the State or Goverment refuses to do anything and my insurance of course will refuse coverage and of course my $50,000 in my bank wouldn't cover it so JOHN Q will be my Action PERIOD (Movie with Densal Washington in it)

[Eris23Skidoo]

06:37 PM on 11/18/2010

That's pretty much what happened to me. My insurance company decided they weren't going to pay for my transplant or for kidney dialysis despite my having paid them premiums for eight years. The State of Idaho (so red they're practically communist) wasn't about to step in and save my life. The ONLY reason I am alive today is because I'm a veteran and because the democrats in congress decided in 2006 that they were going to fully fund the VA for the first time since the republicans took over in 1994. A few short years ago, I would have died from kidney failure.

[rcorrie]

02:06 AM on 11/22/2010

I am also a dialysis patient for 10 years now....on Medicare/Medical thank God that hey cover me or I would not be here. Stories like this make me sick, how people that never have experienced chronic illness are so dismissive of those who fight on a daily basis to stay alive.