A closer look at Steve Jobs’ transplant

I'm struggling with feeling like it's not fair that Steve Jobs got an orthotopic liver transplant for his low grade neuroendocrine tumor (at least that's what I think his diagnosis is, based on media reports. He has, to date, not released his diagnosis, though I think he should and apparently Apple might have violated the law by not disclosing his health conditions.) The surprise isn't that he went through with it, I suppose, though the evidence of effectiveness for neuroendocrine tumors is not great (I blogged about it back in January). And although the news just broke now, he had his transplant two months ago. (And kudos to the hospital that did the transplant for not leaking the story when the surgery first happened, though they are talking about it now). But the surprising thing is the way he went about getting his transplant.

First of all, he had his transplant in Tennessee. Why Tennessee? Because Tennessee apparently has the shortest wait time for organs. And let's not kid ourselves, he undoubtedly used his wealth and stature to mobilize resources to get his transplant quickly relative to what he would have gotten if he was transplanted in his home town of Palo Alto, Calif.

I find this like cheating the system or playing the odds. He worked the system, and he won. To be clear, he didn't pay to have his transplant sooner, but he certainly looked around for the place where he would get his organ the quickest. And had the capacity and resources to fly to that hospital as soon as an organ became available for him. But wouldn't it be better to have a transplant system that is fair for all patients, regardless of socioeconomic background? No multiple listings, no jumping from hospital to hospital. This seems so simple to me, so why hasn't it taken effect?