{"id":9,"date":"2015-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota1.wpengine.com\/cotaforbrooklynf\/2015\/12\/15\/why-75000\/"},"modified":"2015-12-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T00:00:00","slug":"why-75000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbrooklynf\/2015\/12\/15\/why-75000\/","title":{"rendered":"Why $75,000?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you’ve seen our $75,000 fundraising goal and wondered one of the following things:<\/p>\n

1) Good gracious, that’s high! How will they ever reach that goal?<\/p>\n

2) Is that the cost to buy a liver???<\/p>\n

3) Why isn’t this covered by insurance?<\/p>\n

So let’s quell our curiosities today, shall we?<\/p>\n

1) COTA helped us determine our fundraising goal.  They have 20+ years of experience in helping families with transplant-related expenses.  (We have 0 years experience, so we appreciated their expertise!)  And YES, this is a lot of money to raise!  We’re only going to reach it with the provision of the Lord through the help of people like you–one dollar at a time!<\/p>\n

2) You can NOT buy a liver.  Believe me, if you could stroll through the aisles of Target, place a liver in your big red cart, and receive 5% off with your RedCard while checking out, we would have it made.  \ud83d\ude09  But you can’t do that, and that’s not what the goal covers.  The $75,000 fundraising goal was compiled by looking at the breakdown of current transplant-related (pre-transplant) and post-transplant for up to five years and then making an estimation of the sum of those costs.<\/p>\n

3) We actually have great insurance, provided through Nick’s employer, and they WILL cover the cost of the transplant.  However, there are a few caveats: we must have the transplant performed at one of the medical centers on their compiled list (there are no qualifying pediatric liver transplant programs in Memphis on their list…as a result, we have chosen a program in Chicago).  There is obviously a cost to stay insured, and there is also an amount that we are required to pay annually out of pocket.  If we are in good standing with payment on our premiums and we have reached our out of pocket max (currently $5,000 for our family), then our insurance will pay 100% of our medical bills…until the next calendar year, when the deductible\/out of pocket max starts over.  <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

I feel the need to share with you that our “yes” to Brooklyn was a blend of responsible, practical conversations and decisions of faith.  We didn’t hastily make the decision to adopt a critically ill child without weighing the costs and responsibilities.  And yet, the cost of caring for a child waiting for, receiving, and recovering from a transplant is enormous for any family.  Most families don’t volunteer for this.  And although we did, we recognized that we would need to lean on the support of our friends and family like every other family does.  <\/p>\n

So what does the $75,000 cover?  The short answer is: COTA provides support for transplant-related expenses that our insurance does not cover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To give you a clearer picture, this includes the cost of:<\/p>\n