New hope for patients: Lebanon opens door to kidney transplants with full financial coverage

Report by Cherly Abou Chabke, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

For many kidney patients in Lebanon, a transplant once hinged on finding both a donor and the money to pay for it. Now, that financial barrier has been removed.

For the first time, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has decided to fully cover the cost of kidney transplants for anyone in need, provided a donor is available. 

The decision is both humanitarian and economic. By the numbers, a transplant costs about $17,000, while dialysis for a single patient costs about $13,000 annually.

This decision is no longer just words on paper. At Al-Rassoul Al-Aazam Hospital, the first two adult transplant operations were successfully carried out at the ministry’s full expense, and the ministry is working to sustain the program.

The move has opened a new door for patients whose treatment was previously stalled by a lack of donors or financial barriers.

Officials say the ministry is also working to provide full coverage for bone marrow transplants in both public and private hospitals.

Between political will and medical advances, new opportunities are emerging to write stories of recovery. All it takes: a donor and a match. The rest is up to the ministry.