70 million insured will be sent organ donation card by mail

Health insurance companies send 70 million organ donor cards
In the coming months, around 70 million insured persons in Germany will receive an organ donor card. The health insurance companies are obliged to send their members such a form every two years.

70 million insured are contacted
Although only a few months ago it was reported that the willingness to donate organs has risen slightly, thousands of seriously ill people are still waiting for a life-saving organ. In the coming months, the German health insurance companies will now send nearly 70 million organ donor cards to their insured, reports the news agency dpa. After the reform of the Transplantation Act of 2012, the health insurances are obliged to send such a form every two years to all citizens over the age of 16.

This is what an organ donor card looks like. Image: Alexander Raths - fotolia

Relatives of deceased decide
The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), for example, will be able to send more than eight million letters by post until the end of October, as the cash register announced on Monday in Hamburg. It was pointed out by the TC that, according to the law, the relatives of a deceased decide on organ removal if they do not make their own decision for or against it. The CEO of TK, Dr. Ing. Jens Baas, stated in a press release: "Surveys conducted by the polling firm Forsa on our behalf show that we have already been able to significantly increase the proportion of insured persons who have a completed organ donor card." Deutsche Stiftung Patientenschutz criticized the expensive action.

More education about organ donation required
Only recently had the Catholic German Bishops' Conference demanded more information from people about organ donation. An orientation guide from the bishops' Faith Commission said that "when citizens are regularly contacted by their health insurance and asked to make a personal decision to donate", it is not enough. The Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) informed a few months ago that the readiness for organ donation can be revoked at any time. In the first half of 2015, the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation again recorded a slight increase in organ donation. A total of 464 people donated organs from January to June 2015, compared to 435 in the same period last year. (Ad)