America lets you sell blood plasma for money. The centers will call it a donation, but you get money for it, so. You can come in a couple of times a week and especially for low income people it can be a significant addition to their income. There are referral bonuses, and you get paid more if you come in more often. (Seems weird?) These centers are mostly located in low-income areas.
There’s a history here involving Nicaragua. Under a dictator there was a center doing this, and a journalist was writing about concerns, and eventually the dictator had the journalist killed. Riots in the aftermath left the center burned down and eventually the dictator got deposed. At some point the WHO wrote up an agreement or something not to allow blood plasma to be sold. Almost everyone’s signed, but not the USA. Now almost everyone gets their blood plasma from the USA. Four exceptions, who allow it to be sold and are self-sufficient: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary.
We speak to a Canadian healthcare person about why Canada doesn’t allow it. Three concerns. He’s not too worried about incentives for people to sell bad blood, apparently we can sanitize it, even of HIV. He’s also not too worried about health impacts on sellers; they get a checkup every four months to make sure they’re still good, and there’s some anecdotal evidence that maybe it should be more frequent but basically it seems fine. He seemed more concerned about “if people can sell plasma, will they do other things like regular blood donation for free?” I don’t remember the commentary on that. I think he said that if the USA didn’t allow selling they’d probably have to in Canada, but as long as they do it’s unlikely to change.
We also speak to a Brazilian doctor saying that plasma and the things it’s used for are essential, there are people who will die without it, get over yourselves.
Concerns that if either demand raises (finding new uses: there are studies showing promise in Alzheimers) or supply drops, there might not be enough. In fact supply has dropped during Covid: possible reasons include “sellers need the money less thanks to stimulus”; “if your kids are at home all the time you might be too busy”; “a lot of the sellers near the border are Mexicans who can’t come over any more”.
Planet Money (14 May 2021): Blood Money
America lets you sell blood plasma for money. The centers will call it a donation, but you get money for it, so. You can come in a couple of times a week and especially for low income people it can be a significant addition to their income. There are referral bonuses, and you get paid more if you come in more often. (Seems weird?) These centers are mostly located in low-income areas.
There’s a history here involving Nicaragua. Under a dictator there was a center doing this, and a journalist was writing about concerns, and eventually the dictator had the journalist killed. Riots in the aftermath left the center burned down and eventually the dictator got deposed. At some point the WHO wrote up an agreement or something not to allow blood plasma to be sold. Almost everyone’s signed, but not the USA. Now almost everyone gets their blood plasma from the USA. Four exceptions, who allow it to be sold and are self-sufficient: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary.
(Farmer’s Dilemma!)
We speak to a Canadian healthcare person about why Canada doesn’t allow it. Three concerns. He’s not too worried about incentives for people to sell bad blood, apparently we can sanitize it, even of HIV. He’s also not too worried about health impacts on sellers; they get a checkup every four months to make sure they’re still good, and there’s some anecdotal evidence that maybe it should be more frequent but basically it seems fine. He seemed more concerned about “if people can sell plasma, will they do other things like regular blood donation for free?” I don’t remember the commentary on that. I think he said that if the USA didn’t allow selling they’d probably have to in Canada, but as long as they do it’s unlikely to change.
We also speak to a Brazilian doctor saying that plasma and the things it’s used for are essential, there are people who will die without it, get over yourselves.
Concerns that if either demand raises (finding new uses: there are studies showing promise in Alzheimers) or supply drops, there might not be enough. In fact supply has dropped during Covid: possible reasons include “sellers need the money less thanks to stimulus”; “if your kids are at home all the time you might be too busy”; “a lot of the sellers near the border are Mexicans who can’t come over any more”.