The health ministry may expand medical insurance coverage to include heart and pancreas transplants, ministry officials said Wednesday.
According to a health ministry plan to revise medical fees for fiscal 2006, submitted the same day to its panel, transplants of lungs and livers from brain-dead donors will also be covered by public health insurance.
Under the current system, patients and their families can benefit from the insurance for only certain types of organ transplants, including liver transplants from living donors and renal transplants.
But law prohibits transplantation of organs from people under age 15, meaning children who need small organs are virtually barred from transplant operations.
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