how come when you donate blood to red cross they won't tell you that they're making profit from it?, I'm mad.

Question

I donated for free, the receipient should be given the blood for free and not purchase it through his/her insurance,..what if someone doesn't have no insurance an he/she is poor, will ge just be put aside just like that? I'm furrious I wasn't informed that my donations will be provided free of charge.

Answer 1

I can only speak from my own experience. The disease my son had required that he get transfusions as often as every day. The blood he received was not on the list of charges we received (even though he was covered by insurance, the hospital he was at was not a part of our insurance and we got an itemized list of all charges). Now, perhaps people ARE charged for the actual blood they receive, but there is a law that requires all people are given medical care regardless of their ability to pay. They won't be left to suffer or die. When my husband did not have insurance, he was still given excellent care, he just ended up with a large bill at the end of it all.

Another disclaimer...the blood he received was not from Red Cross, it was from a "local" blood bank.

Answer 2

Slow down there, you're foaming at the mouth.
First off the Red Cross is a NON-PROFIT organization. You have to understand that meaning. That doesn't mean that they don't have expenses (they have a lot!) and that they don't use money and that they don't have bills and write checks. They have to run offices, pay electric bills, but processing and computer equipment, they have to have full-time staff, phlebotomists (good, trained phlebotomists) on the payroll, etc. The Red Cross is a very large, very organized organization that has to PAY qualified people to provide the products and services they provide. Sure, a lot of people (mostly non-skilled) volunteer, and people like you and me volunteer and give blood, but you can't have an organization that does what it does and not have skilled technical employees that get the job done in the organization. How do you suppose they pay to get those services rendered? Money fairies? No, there is a great deal of cost associated with processing blood and that's paid for by charging for the product they produce.

Answer 3

Part of the charges are recovered funds for storage, transport, labor, etc...