I call on the Federal Government of Australia and the major Health Insurance funds to consider the option of compensating live organ donors and the next of kin of deceased organ donors in an effort to increase organ donation rates. At a cost of approximately $50,000 a year to keep a patient on dialysis, a significant saving to the taxpayer and health insurance funds would be made by increasing organ donation rates.

Organ donation rates have significantly decreased in Australia in recent years, which I believe could be addressed by the following measures:

1) Compensation for live donors: It is a fact that the act of altruistic organ donation has significant financial implications for the donor. Having to take time off work means that the donor could possibly be significantly out of pocket. Some possible means to address this issue could be as follows:

• A one off cash compensation, say $3,000
• a lifetime increase in the tax free threshold for donors, say from $5,000-odd to $10,000, thus decreasing the tax burden for life - a major incentive
• An increase in the Health Insurance rebate for the donor from 30% to 50%, another significant cost saving for life
• if you have any more suggestions for ways that the Federal Government to compensate organ donors, please add a comment by clicking the “comments” link below.

2) Legislative changes: It is unbelievable that legislation has not been changed that allows next of kin to decline the wishes of deceased persons to be organ donors, despite the explicit directions of the deceased that they wish to donate organs in the event of their death. I call on the Federal Government to implement changes IMMEDIATELY to the current legislation, revoking the right of next of kin to over-ride the wishes of deceased persons to donate. If you would like to add your voice to the argument, please write to Hon. Tony Abbott, the Federal Health Minister, expressing your concerns.

3) More active involvement by the private health funds. It is baffling that the health funds are prepared to pay out $50,000 a year to have a patient in a private dialysis facility, yet do very little to encourage an increase in organ donation rates, which will drastically reduce their expenditure in this area. Perhaps an offer of reduced premiums to organ donors, or a contribution to the out of pocket expenses would decrease their costs. If one was cynical, one could believe that the health funds are considering pulling out of providing coverage for private dialysis alltogether. There is certainly evidence that they are limiting the numbers of patients that they are covering in each dialysis unit, thus providing different levels of cover for different clients who are paying the same premium for supposedly the same cover. (More on this to come!)