Latest news with #EndKidneyDeathsAct
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
We need Rep. Gwen Moore's leadership on this life-saving kidney legislation
I made the decision to donate a kidney. I was healthy, able, and knew that a single act could save a life. I wasn't just giving someone a second chance; I was sending a message that we can all do something profound for one another. Today, I'm writing to ask my representative, Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, to cosponsor the End Kidney Deaths Act, and to raise awareness about legislation that could save tens of thousands of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. It's a commonsense, compassionate solution that aligns perfectly with Moore's deep commitment to families, fairness, and economic opportunity. This legislation must be included in this year's reconciliation package because saving lives should never be postponed. Every year, thousands of Americans die while waiting for a kidney. From 2010 to 2021, more than 100,000 people died on the transplant list. Right now, there are about 90,000 more waiting. The vast majority are on dialysis, a grueling, costly treatment that drains lives and government resources alike. The federal government spends around $50 billion annually on dialysis care, or about $100,000 per patient per year. Here in Wisconsin's 4th Congressional District, 2,072 people are currently on dialysis, and tragically, they die at a rate of 20% each year, meaning we're losing more than 410 lives annually right here at home. These deaths are largely preventable with timely kidney transplants. The End Kidney Deaths Act would change that. It creates a 10-year pilot program offering a $10,000 refundable tax credit per year for five years to people who donate a kidney to a stranger — so-called non-directed donors. These donors are often the ones who spark kidney chains, helping not just one patient but many. The longest kidney chain in the U.S. included 114 recipients. Imagine the lives we could save if we made it easier for more people to donate? Opinion: Cudahy Farms development harms invaluable trees, wetlands and Milwaukee's health The reality is that kidney donors currently receive little to no support. The surgery, recovery, and time off work are real burdens. But the reward? In my experience, it's knowing that someone else is alive and thriving because of my gift. That feeling is priceless, but practical help for donors shouldn't be out of reach. Moore has long fought for working families, women, and the voiceless. She has stood up for better healthcare, maternal support, and protections for the vulnerable. As a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and someone who has experienced the struggle and strength it takes to build a life against the odds, she is uniquely positioned to champion this legislation. The End Kidney Deaths Act reflects the best of what we can do when policy meets empathy. It incentivizes life saving action in a way that is fiscally smart and morally right. Like firefighters and police officers, living kidney donors take real risks to save lives. It's time they were acknowledged and supported for their heroism. Kidney donation is safe. It's brave. It's life-altering. And it's the key to ending an entirely preventable crisis in American healthcare. Letters: Unsafe driving includes tailgating, holding phones, not driving speed limit To me, donating a full organ, an actual part of me, should be considered tax deductible. Someone that writes a check to their local church, or donates in-kind goods from a corporation, receives tax consideration. A person that instead of just writing a check, actually steps up and donates a life-saving organ, should receive a tax deduction to assist them with their financial planning and tax implications. It's a donation that changes lives. We need Moore's voice, leadership and heart. Please join us by cosponsoring the End Kidney Deaths Act. Let's make kidney failure the exception, not the rule. Connie Bolle is a living kidney donor who lives in Wisconsin's 4th Congressional District. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kidney bill could save thousands of lives, tax dollars | Opinion
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Commentary: America needs more living kidney donors. Here's how we achieve that goal
For economists, America's organ shortage is a perplexing public health problem. About 37 million Americans suffer from kidney disease, and more than 800,000 live with kidney failure. At this advanced stage, patients either receive a kidney transplant or remain on dialysis — an expensive and often debilitating treatment — for the rest of their lives. Of the more than 90,000 Americans placed on the kidney transplant waitlist, only about 1 in 4 in 2024 received a kidney. There are simple steps we can take to radically increase the number of kidneys available for transplant, but political and institutional inertia has stood in the way of these changes. By changing incentives for prospective donors and transplant centers, we could save thousands of lives every year. The first and best step toward this goal is passage of the End Kidney Deaths Act, or EKDA, a piece of legislation just reintroduced in Congress that would secure $50,000 in refundable tax credits for living kidney donors who donate to someone they don't know. Historically, advocacy efforts have focused on increasing organ donation by encouraging people to register to be donors upon death. This is a noble cause, but not one that will ultimately address our nation's kidney shortage: Fewer than 2% of people die in a way that allows their kidneys to be recovered for transplant. Fortunately, there is a better option. The gold standard treatment for end-stage kidney disease is a transplant from a living donor, which can last its recipient up to twice as long as one from a deceased source. Kidney donation is remarkably safe and getting safer — donors have the same life expectancy as nondonors, and the operation has better outcomes on average than childbirth and appendectomies. What's more, tens of thousands of brave people are willing to donate one of their kidneys in order to save the life of a loved one or stranger. Today, however, only a third of transplanted kidneys come from living donors. Why is that? One barrier to widespread living donation is a lack of willing donors. Despite the low level of risk associated with kidney donation, it remains an intensive process with a recovery time that can vary from four weeks to several months. Donation can also be expensive: Donors miss weeks of work during the evaluation, donation and recovery process on top of transportation and caretaking costs. One 2019 paper by university researchers estimated that donors face financial disincentives in the range of $38,000. Programs that nominally reimburse donors for incidental costs are either means-tested against recipients or only offer reimbursement after donation, meaning donors must be able to afford lost wages and other costs upfront. In the United States, it remains illegal to provide donors with any valuable consideration for kidney donation. This not only prohibits financial compensation, but also prevents donors from receiving health care coverage or other benefits following donation. At the policy level, we can bring living organ donation to an all-time high by revisiting the National Organ Transplant Act, or NOTA, the legislation that makes compensation for kidney donation illegal. The EKDA, a 10-year pilot program proposed by the Coalition to Modify NOTA, offers a sensible, moderate approach to valuable consideration in the form of refundable tax credits of $50,000 for nondirected living donors. The credit would be paid out over the course of five years, at $10,000 each year, and mirror the support we already extend to other public servants, such as veterans, firefighters and adoptive parents. If the act passes, the coalition estimates that 100,000 Americans would receive healthy kidneys from living donors over the course of 10 years. Taxpayers would save $10 billion to $37 billion in averted dialysis costs over the same time period. Meanwhile, such policy reform would also help tackle a persistent disparity: the disproportionate impact of kidney disease on low-income Americans, who are significantly less likely to receive a kidney from a loved one. Importantly, this effort is being led not just by politicians or social engineers, but also by living donors and transplant surgeons — people who are intimately familiar with the process of kidney donation and the struggles faced by donors and recipients alike. Often, we don't know how to solve big problems in health care. In the case of kidney disease, we already have some of the answers. By implementing commonsense reforms, voters, policymakers and medical institutions can team up to radically reduce death and suffering as a result of this devastating disease. ____ Steven Levitt, an emeritus professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the book 'Freakonomics,' is co-founder and faculty director of the university's Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change, known as RISC. Ruby Rorty is a senior analyst at the center. Together, they lead the initiative Project Donor, which draws on behavioral science insights to support living organ donors in Chicago and nationwide. ___
Chicago Tribune
29-04-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Steven Levitt and Ruby Rorty: America needs more living kidney donors. Here's how we achieve that goal.
For economists, America's organ shortage is a perplexing public health problem. About 37 million Americans suffer from kidney disease, and more than 800,000 live with kidney failure. At this advanced stage, patients either receive a kidney transplant or remain on dialysis — an expensive and often debilitating treatment — for the rest of their lives. Of the more than 90,000 Americans placed on the kidney transplant waitlist, only about 1 in 4 in 2024 received a kidney. There are simple steps we can take to radically increase the number of kidneys available for transplant, but political and institutional inertia has stood in the way of these changes. By changing incentives for prospective donors and transplant centers, we could save thousands of lives every year. The first and best step toward this goal is passage of the End Kidney Deaths Act, or EKDA, a piece of legislation just reintroduced in Congress that would secure $50,000 in refundable tax credits for living kidney donors who donate to someone they don't know. Historically, advocacy efforts have focused on increasing organ donation by encouraging people to register to be donors upon death. This is a noble cause, but not one that will ultimately address our nation's kidney shortage: Fewer than 2% of people die in a way that allows their kidneys to be recovered for transplant. Fortunately, there is a better option. The gold standard treatment for end-stage kidney disease is a transplant from a living donor, which can last its recipient up to twice as long as one from a deceased source. Kidney donation is remarkably safe and getting safer — donors have the same life expectancy as nondonors, and the operation has better outcomes on average than childbirth and appendectomies. What's more, tens of thousands of brave people are willing to donate one of their kidneys in order to save the life of a loved one or stranger. Today, however, only a third of transplanted kidneys come from living donors. Why is that? One barrier to widespread living donation is a lack of willing donors. Despite the low level of risk associated with kidney donation, it remains an intensive process with a recovery time that can vary from four weeks to several months. Donation can also be expensive: Donors miss weeks of work during the evaluation, donation and recovery process on top of transportation and caretaking costs. One 2019 paper by university researchers estimated that donors face financial disincentives in the range of $38,000. Programs that nominally reimburse donors for incidental costs are either means-tested against recipients or only offer reimbursement after donation, meaning donors must be able to afford lost wages and other costs upfront. In the United States, it remains illegal to provide donors with any valuable consideration for kidney donation. This not only prohibits financial compensation, but also prevents donors from receiving health care coverage or other benefits following donation. At the policy level, we can bring living organ donation to an all-time high by revisiting the National Organ Transplant Act, or NOTA, the legislation that makes compensation for kidney donation illegal. The EKDA, a 10-year pilot program proposed by the Coalition to Modify NOTA, offers a sensible, moderate approach to valuable consideration in the form of refundable tax credits of $50,000 for nondirected living donors. The credit would be paid out over the course of five years, at $10,000 each year, and mirror the support we already extend to other public servants, such as veterans, firefighters and adoptive parents. If the act passes, the coalition estimates that 100,000 Americans would receive healthy kidneys from living donors over the course of 10 years. Taxpayers would save $10 billion to $37 billion in averted dialysis costs over the same time period. Meanwhile, such policy reform would also help tackle a persistent disparity: the disproportionate impact of kidney disease on low-income Americans, who are significantly less likely to receive a kidney from a loved one. Importantly, this effort is being led not just by politicians or social engineers, but also by living donors and transplant surgeons — people who are intimately familiar with the process of kidney donation and the struggles faced by donors and recipients alike. Often, we don't know how to solve big problems in health care. In the case of kidney disease, we already have some of the answers. By implementing commonsense reforms, voters, policymakers and medical institutions can team up to radically reduce death and suffering as a result of this devastating disease. Steven Levitt, an emeritus professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the book 'Freakonomics,' is co-founder and faculty director of the university's Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change, known as RISC. Ruby Rorty is a senior analyst at the center. Together, they lead the initiative Project Donor, which draws on behavioral science insights to support living organ donors in Chicago and nationwide.
