A major obstacle to the provision of donor milk to all babies who need it is lack of insurance coverage.  We do not have a shortage of mothers willing to donate.

     In most states, there is limited third-party coverage for the donor milk processing fee (costs incurred by donor screening,pasteurizing,shipping/delivery, etc). There are a few states which do provide Medicaid coverage for outpatients, however, they pay a predetermined fee which does not cover the entire cost of processing the milk.  This lack of coverage presents a barrier to its use by hospitals and post-discharge families. It requires recipient hospitals to allocate funds for the milk processing fee from their limited patient-care budgets, which they are often reluctant to do due to a lack of awareness of the importance of human milk.  Ongoing education by the lactation community and studies such as that done by Nancy Wight, M.D. that support donor milk useage are essential to necessary change in health care policy and complete coverage of the donor milk processing fee.  This shift to a model in which access to human milk is recognized as a right of all newborns is a lengthy process, but has begun.  Each of us has a role to play in this.
 In the meantime, the HMBANA milk banks continue to keep the donor milk fee below cost to encourage its use.  This requires private funding (not from formula companies or their associates) and support from the community and/or hospital with which the milk bank is affiliated.
  Warmly,
  Georgia Morrow
-- 
"A Person's a Person No Matter How Small"

-Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who