2w ago

“Donated” plasma today

The staff were pretty kind all around, facility was clean.

The dystopian aspect was how many people I saw denied, because they had donated yesterday. You can give twice a week, but have to wait a day in between. I saw at least four or five people get turned away, and they were all pretty upset. The line was extremely long - there are tons of people desperate enough to wait in line for hours to go through the painful process of having their blood sapped out.

I also got a preloaded card as my payment, which has a ton of fees associated with it - I’ll get charged if I use it at an atm or check the balance. I know these cash cards are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s - it just seems like so much of the US is designed to nickel and dime the shit out of the poor.

65 comments

Is that not for health reasons? Donating twice in a row like that seems like it would take a real toll on you.
I don't know why that's dystopian, if anything what's dystopian is that people are relying on doing this to support themselves at all.
- Yeah - that’s what I found dystopian about it. That someone would be desperate enough to come back the next day to try again - it’s not even $50.
  
  I was reading it like the big bad government was preventing us from draining ourselves however we please for personal profit, and that's a bad thing. I am not feeling well and my reading comprehension is clearly lacking.
  
  The real dystopian thing for me is that you guys get paid to donate blood. That is just insane.
  
  yeah this is as dystopian as young me could've imagined actually. i know this because young me wrote a fantasy setting where blood (and specifically high glucose contained blood) was consumed as a magic reagent and poor people worked full time selling blood
- You're right. But the payment card is definitely dystopian and designed to maximize fees from the users for every aspect. It should be required by law that these businesses give alternative options for receiving payments, or remove any sort of fees.
  
  Most prepaid cards such as prepaid visas can be checked for free on the site, no? That has been my experience anyway...
  
  When I used to donate there was an option to transfer the funds from the card via ACH. Of course, ACH is slow as hell and another big problem of its own.
- Paying people for donating parts of their body is obviously a recipe for disaster. What they observed here is a general growing trend in the US of poor people having to use blood donations as a means of survival. Its not donating if you get payed for it, its selling. OP sold their blood and is rightfully upset that people are so desperate that they try to sell unhealthy amounts of blood.
  
  Another thing I noticed is that you can’t donate if you are on PREP or PEP. The info screen says that you shouldn’t discontinue those meds to donate - but if you are in the situation where you need food, what’s the choice going to be there?
  
  Paying people for donating parts of their body is obviously a recipe for disaster.
  Is it? The alternative is domestic shortages. In fact, while most of the rest of the world doesn't pay its donors, but it happily accepts blood products derived from US donors (paid or not).
  "The US, with 5 percent of the world’s population, supplies more than 70 percent of the entire world’s plasma used for plasma therapies, and over 80 percent of ours. It is able to do this because in the US, donors are paid."
  "The only countries that don’t rely on American plasma donors are countries that also pay donors for plasma, including Germany, Austria, Czechia (the Czech Republic), and Hungary. The commercial plasma sector in these five countries together makes up more than 90 percent of the entire world’s supply of plasma for plasma therapies."
  source
  Many countries have laws preventing offering money for blood donations. Canada, for example, is one. Knowing this, as an American, Canada is where I donate blood to help our Canadian brothers and sisters. I'll say that this has been more difficult that I expected though. The Canadian Blood Services location in the border town I'm closest to in Ontario stopped taking whole blood donation and only does apheresis, which I'm not interested in. In Quebec, I had some troubles donating at Héma-Québec as the questionnaire required name and address, but only listed Canadian provinces. The helpful worker there put in her own address under my name so I could donate.
- Damn... NZ is every two weeks for plasma, and they can't pay you.
- I did it twice a week the entire time I was in college. Yes, it very much does take a toll on you.
Shitty gas station job I worked at in my late teens tried to switch to those ratfucking cash cards and end paper checks. They claimed that the first withdrawal or use on the card from any location wouldn't charge us any fees.
I proved that wrong by trying to get my full paycheck out of the ATM we had in the store and got slapped with a 10 dollar fee. When my boss shrugged and said "Oh, well" I went home and looked up the state labor laws about these fucking cards. Turns out they weren't allowed to charge fees in my state at all and any use of such fees would be treated as wage theft.
Company changed their tune real quick when I threatened HR about going to our local daily and the labor department about it. Paper paychecks were suddenly an option again and everyone got a $25 bonus for whatever fees they lost. Fuckers. I quit three months later.
- hats fucking off to you for doing your legal homework and putting those fucking bastards in their place. you did your coworkers a solid. a lot of people desperate enough to work at a shithole that bad don't have any spare time or energy to do stuff like that.
This isn't new. Back when I gave plasma (almost 20 years now, damn) the two companies that did it here had to share donor lists to keep people from doubling up by going to both. Also, there were always large rocks in the bathroom from smaller people trying to get to the higher weight range to make more money.
I work in plasma, and deferring donors is by far the most difficult part. I had to send three people home just today for having out of range hematocrit. The look of devastation on their faces when they find out they're not getting paid nearly brings me to tears every time. Sometimes they get angry and yell at me, and I just let them do it until they tire themselves out because I know how desperate they are. I'm just thankful that I'm primarily a lab tech and don't have to deal with the donor side every day; I don't think I could take it psychologically.
- I got deferred years ago because a batch test including my sample came up positive for hepatitis (I forget which type.) I immediately went to my doctor and got tested. I had no risk factors, so the doctor was confused, but they ran the test anyway. It came back negative.
  But the center said I was deferred for life, without a chance that I could ever donate anything again. All the plasma they had taken from me had to be destroyed. It was heartbreaking, and I'm still confused how they could defer someone permanently for something that wasn't even in their own sample.
It's wild this is a paid thing in the US. As far as I know, in Canada, you can only donate for free. Blood, plasma, sperm, doesn't matter. Can't be paid for surrogacy either.
- Yeah, but the snacks are great. But I miss the pre-covid era of soup and Cookies by George.
  
  They have Hard Bite near me which are arguably the best chips to come out of Canada since Lays Ketchup chips (by like a lot).
- As an American I respect why thats the case, but when I was dead broke fuck I needed that money.
- Honestly, in the US at least, I'm annoyed that you can't be paid for regular whole blood donation. I could go donate blood for free, get in a car accident on the way home, need a transfusion, and be billed thousands of dollars for the privilege. That "putting a price on medicine is unethical" only applies to donors apparently.
Getting charged to check the balance seems...not legal? I dunno, probably not. Some politician that also owns a payday lending company would probably ensure that's legal.
- Might be because the ATM doesn't belong to the bank, so it charges non-partner bank fees, as opposed to the card itself charging people to look at the balance?
  
  Oh, I assumed this meant checking balance on a web site. Which should absolutely be free.
I had one of those preloaded cash cards once, my credit union was more than happy to charge it the amount on the card and transfer that to my account, if there was a fee involved they must have eaten it.
- I didn't know they could do that. What do you ask them for to do that?
  
  This has $XX on it. Can you put it in my checking account?
- If you can get two PayPal accounts going I have always sent the cash to myself that way
Here in Germany at the facility I donate at, you need to wait two full days before you can donate again because your body needs the time to regenerate. While the toll on your body is smaller compared to a blood donation, your body still is at work to regenerate what's missing now. It's not a precaution that's put there willy nilly
- In Belgium, you need to wait two weeks before donating again (plasma and platelets, 2 months for blood). I regularly donate platelets, and sometimes plasma if the platelet slots are all occupied.
  We get thank-you receipts (or public transportation ones) which we can turn in for some goodies. I hoard them up until I can get two tickets for an amusement park that I can visit with my daughter.
  I don't know if getting paid for it would be better or more appreciated. I feel that it could lead to more abuse? I am much more happy to know I'm donating for a good cause...
  
  Sadly, I used to not have the luxury of donating plasma for the sake of it but at times required it to pay for bills and groceries. It's a little better right now, but it's still not ideal.
  I'm sure there are others like me who can definitely use the money. It's a noble idea that people would donate for the sake of it, but it's unlikely and plain unrealistic that people are altruistic enough to do so. It's fine to incentivise them for it in my books.
  The company behind the facility uses the plasma to produce drugs and probably gain way more from the single donation than the donor does in terms of money. The least they can do is pay people for their donations. I've had a pretty big discussion on this topic around a year ago or so where people from the US, for example, chimed in and said that they'd get more than 100$ per donation. Insane compared to the 25€ we get here. So even these 25€ that are frowned on by some are nothing for how much blood plasma is actually worth.
  It's awesome that you're in a position where you're not "forced" to donate anything for money, but the reality is that there are loads of people who rely on that additional income and use the opportunity where possible.
It's called profit maximization.
- It’s really amazing how expensive being poor is.
  I pay interest on my credit card loans, I pay late fees on things like electricity and my internet. The interest and late fees and all that other shit would be enough to start saving up for home.
  Gas station food and energy drinks are expensive as shit, but sometimes when you are working two jobs you just want a fucking slice of pizza and enough caffeine to make it through the next shift.
  I can at least manage my apartment, and can pick up a third job once school starts up again - but being in these places where I see people who are poorer than me and lack the ability to understand how to navigate the world - who don’t have a college education/the ability to read/the ability to speak English - what kind of sick and evil world is this?
  
  I was having just this conversation with a friend of mine the other day. There is a level of net worth that once you hit it, it becomes exponentially harder to get out of poverty than someone who isn't poor. And absolutely no amount of money can help them because unless you can stop the churn, all that money will just go toward the black hole of fees and other expenses.
  
  A profitable one!
are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s
The fuck?
- For employers at least, state laws usually require them to offer direct deposit. But the problem is that many low income folks are unbanked. If you're poor, you're more likely to have an overdrawn account. And banks have a special credit rating equivalent system for bank account customers. If you have too poor a history with one bank, they'll close your account, and other banks may refuse to open an account for you. Or many banks have free accounts without a monthly fee, but only if you maintain a minimum balance or deposit a minimum in there each pay period. Poor folks can struggle to qualify on either of those accounts.
- In Canada it's not even legal for employers to give gift cards out as gifts, let alone pay a fucking wage with them. (I mean they still give them as gifts but they're not technically allowed to).
  US is a fucking wild place.
  
  Well Canada just uses ~~indentured servants~~ temporary foreign workers for places like McDonald's so we are not really without sin.
  But getting paid in pre paid cards is wild.
- Yeah, all kinda of places. Dollar General does this too. They have a direct deposit option. But, many people who work there don't have a bank account, so they offer to pay you with a pre-paid card. And it does have tons of fees.
  
  Company store all over. Soon they will pay them in "room and board"
I used to sell plasma. I was already left wing and aware of American desperation, but that was about the bleakest shit I've seen. Ive been to chemo wards that are upbeat compared to it.
- It depends on where the donation center is. I live in a semi-rural college town with virtually zero homeless population. Plasma donation here is a bit different here than it is in the urban hellscape 25 minutes away. The atmosphere here is more "blood drive" than "soup kitchen".
You have observations, I have answers. 🙂 I have donated plasma on & off for idk 12 years or so. I know precisely how the system works.
Donating 2 non-consecutive days is for your own health; your body needs to recover & replenish what has been lost. This isn't dystopian. They pull up to 880 mL of liquid out of your body, most of that is water btw, but FFS your body needs time to produce more plasma. To heal your skin puncture. They don't care if you're upset, they won't allow you to ruin your health under their care.
I do not know your specific plasma outfit, be it Talecris/Grifols, CSL, or other, but you ought not get charged if you use your card at an ATM in the accepted network of ATMs. You get unlimited free balance checks & 2 free withdrawals of cash money per donation. With most ATMs, you can withdraw $300 max in one go. So here's what you do....fuck all the small stuff because it's a waste of time, multiple trips & whatnot. Let your balance build up to over $300. Withdraw $300 in one go. You will never be charged a withdrawal fee.
Additionally, if you have multiple plasma donation clinics in the same area, you can play them against each other for new donor fees. Get $700 in one month donating at one. When the new donor fees dry up, bounce & go to the other clinic & suck up their new donor fees. Stay true to the second one & stay away from the first for 5 more months, guess what, you're a new donor again at the first clinic. Rinse & repeat.
I feel you on the nickel & diming sentiment, it's true -- it can only, maybe, sometimes be overcome with forethought & investment. See the boots theory. It's expensive to be poor, some of my poorer friends pay so much more than I do for certain things. The same things. Usually they're buying out of convenience & not buying on sales, or in bulk. It breaks my heart, really.
Also pro tip, just be really positive & calm when you go in for donations. The staff is dealing with angry people, crazy people, dumb people, very smelly people, drug addicts, the desperate, the destitute...etc etc etc. Every single day. And if you give them any attitude (even if you've got a good reason!) & they decide to make it a problem for you, they can defer or ban your ass. It's solely their discretion. Think twice. Be nice.
- Do you have any advice for coping with the discomfort?
  I didn’t take the saline/get blood returned to me because it started burning. Which is fine, my doc has suggest therapeutic blood draws to deal with occasionally high hemocrit anyway.
  But ugh…. The entire experience was really uncomfortable and icky. I’m debating on whether it’s worth going back, but damn if I didn’t enjoy having having a steak and a beer with the money after.
  
  For you, it absolutely seems worth going back. Health benefit plus money. I treat it like a checkup, too, like if my numbers are way off they'll be among the first to tell me, make suggestions.
  Trying something completely new is going to be uncomfortable! I'd give it a few more tries, at least take them for all their new donor money. You get used to it.
  I'd recommend drinking tons of water, day before, morning of, just before you get on the floor. Then it doesn't hurt if you pound some water after. Drinking lots of water can make for a much faster donation (conversely, not drinking enough water before donations can result in a slow draw nightmare).
  You're kind of asking the wrong person because I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I say push through. Try again. Drink lots of water. If you have any questions or concerns, ask the staff. There's not a situation you have that they haven't seen before.
I've never heard of McDonald's employees getting paid in preloaded cards, is that true? I know plenty of people do it to avoid taxes but McDonald's is a major employer and that's pretty damn illegal
- Pay cards are pretty popular among a lot of employers.
  I know I read a ProPublica article about how fucked they are a while back, but both DDG and Google don’t seem interested in helping me find it…
  But yeah, a lot of big retail/fast food places will pressure you into taking your pay as a pay card. These pay cards usually charge you for things like checking your balance or using an ATM.
  
  Ah, ok. I'm guessing the law is that pay cards can't be the only option then
I drive Uber and see this shit and so much more all the time. It's such a bleak lens into how people are being forced to get by (read: just baaaaaarely). It's really, really wild out there.

65 comments