Second patient removed from Arizona transplant list dies

An Arizona patient awaiting a liver transplant who was removed from the waiting list as a result of state Medicaid budget cuts has died – the second such person to die since the cuts were announced on Oct. 1, 2010.

The unidentified patient's death was reported Thursday in the Arizona Daily Star.

State legislators and Governor Jan Brewer have faced criticism for the policy, which cut funding for certain pancreas, lung, bone marrow, heart and liver transplants for adults on Medicaid. The cuts amount to roughly $4 million in savings for the program.

Arizona's incoming Democratic minority leader, David Schapira of Tempe, said he plans to propose legislation that will restore the funding.

“It's time to put politics aside and restore the transplant funding," he said. "Failure to restore this funding is a death sentence for people who have committed no crimes."

National advocacy groups are also urging a change of direction in Arizona. The National Patient Advocate Foundation has called on Arizona lawmakers to reinstate benefits for the state's adult Medicaid patients awaiting transplants.

"As an organization dedicated to helping ensure all critically ill patients are able to access the life-saving care they need, we felt it necessary to speak out on behalf of Arizona's Medicaid patients who are now unable to receive essential transplants as a result of the state's recent budget decision," said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, founder and CEO of the NPAF. "Though we appreciate states' severe funding shortfalls, we must join the growing chorus of leading medical centers, experts and physicians and patients themselves in urging Governor Brewer and the state's leadership to reverse this dangerous position that could be truly devastating for patients awaiting transplant."

There have been recent indications that both Brewer and the Republican majority in the state are willing to re-examine the policy. Physician groups in the state have been working to compile data intended to show the benefit of extending the coverage.

Estimates put the total number of people in Arizona who are covered by Medicaid and awaiting transplants at around 95, all of whom have been removed from the transplant waiting list.

The patient's death was "most likely" due to the defunding of organ transplants, University of Arizona Surgery Department spokeswoman Jo Marie Gellerman told the Daily Star.

While there is no guarantee the patient would have found a donor match, she said, his weakening condition over the past few weeks would have moved him higher on the waiting list.