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I have donated in the past, but not recently. I am somewhat conflicted on the process now that a number of markets have for-profit corporations running the blood collection, testing, and banking process. I feel that freely giving my blood so that a corporation can make a profit off of it, is not something that I want to be involved in. I understand the arguments that hospitals made the shift from direct collection to buying from the blood bank in order to save on processing and liability issues associated with tainted blood. That kind of 'cover our asses' mentality is also not something I want to be involved in.
The way I see it right now, there are too many points where my blood is generating corporate profit and driving up health care costs. If a blood transfusion costs $250-550/unit, a growing percentage of that cost is due to insurance and blood bank profits, overhead, operating expenses, executive salaries, etc. What would it cost to the patient be, if the corporate blood bank were not involved?
If more hospitals in my area were collecting blood themselves for use in patients in need, either directly or sharing with other hospitals in the area, I would definitely donate. I hold myself to be fairly altruistic and would go out of my way to try to help people that way.
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You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
- Albert Einstein
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