Why do we donate blood for free when hospitals charge thousands for it?

It's not possible to test blood for all possible bloodborne diseases. This isn't Star Trek. You don't just scan blood with a tricorder and get a result of everything wrong with the blood. So a lot of the screening process relies on people being honest. If you incentivize dishonesty, you are going to have a harder time properly screening for healthy blood... There are private companies that will pay for blood/plasma, but they use it for their own research.

In my country people getting tested before the blood is given to others.....

There are many valid reasons not to pay for donating blood. There are none to charge for receiving it.

They absolutely are making a ton of money on blood, upwards of $500 for a single bag. Cost basically nothing to collect since it's donated. You can say the storage cost and wages add to it but it's still an insane markup like everything in Healthcare.

That sounds like a simple fix; dont collect on the same day. Require medical information, call the references. Otherwise just test it...

uhm, here in germany you get payed. of course they will sample your blood first... and yeah: there are also non-profits that will give you a meal and not pay you. but when satan placed a bloodbank close to the nearest Mall i just couldn`t resist...

With how many people I know who get by on selling plasma, I wonder if they test that.

Sooo you are admitting that blood isn’t tested? All donated blood is tested. None of what this person said makes sense.

Non profits are the highest paying organizations

Here in germany often you get compensation of aproximatly 15 Dollars for giving blood. It is really nixce to go with friends and to buy some pizzas with the money Yoh can only do it evry 2/3 months

in my country donors are getting paid, doctors just take 50ml above to make the tests. as if the US doesn't have the equipment to test donor blood, are they taking it on faith?

The stigma and concerns about purchased blood is true, however charities and groups that collect it are not barely breaking even, they are incredibly profitable

I think we have enough technology now to test if the blood is diseased... being back being paid donote.

Skirted right arround the question lol.

Well that just shows that there are other issues underneath driving people to lie or just really inconsiderate individuals...

Because blood expires in a span of 50 days. Also sometimes you can get paid (with a gift card, shirt, and possibly other accessories.)

You get a cookie. It’s not for free.

Can't sell your own organs. But the government can force you to commit suicide so they can harvest them. And you know they're getting payed for your organs.

You could also just give plasma if you want to get paid, because they will pay you for that.

uk its a different reason for us its because its exploiting people who dont have alot of money and we dont want to encourage people to put their health at risk for money the risks associated with donating blood are low yes but we still dont want people doing it out of desperation