10 Reasons to Pass the End Kidney Deaths Act
The End Kidney Deaths Act is a 10 year pilot program that will provide a $50,000 refundable tax credit allocated over 5 years for American non-directed kidney donors who donate their kidney to a stranger at the top of the kidney waitlist in order to greatly increase the supply of living kidney transplants, the gold standard for patients with kidney failure.
The kidney shortage is a tragedy. For example, one Gold Star family lost their only son in Iraq. Their only daughter Joanne is dying of kidney failure. 23 people have stepped forward to donate to her, but none qualified because they are not healthy enough. Joanne is one of 90,000 people seeking lifesaving kidneys.
The End Kidney Deaths Act will save 60,000 American lives and $14-$25 billion in tax money by year ten.
Reduces the current cost of dialysis which is an astronomical $1 out of every $100 tax dollars or $50 billion annually. Once someone receives a kidney transplant, they end dialysis that costs taxpayers $100,000 per patient per year. 800,000 Americans are currently in kidney failure. In 2030, that number will grow to 1,000,000.
Provides far more kidneys for low income and rural Americans, those who are the most likely to die from kidney failure.
1,000 Americans die every month from the kidney waitlist. All of them were healthy enough to receive a kidney when they joined the waitlist. The waiting time due to the kidney shortage killed them.
Half of living kidney donors are spending their own money to donate, on average 10% of their annual incomes on lost wages and travel costs. Currently only 300 Americans donate kidneys to strangers annually. Kidney donation is work that requires months of testing, a surgery and weeks of recovery time.
For the last 24 years, the number of living donors has been a consistent 6,000, while the number of people who need kidneys has doubled. Transplant centers’ reported that they have the capacity to increase the number of kidney transplants by over 60,000 in the next 10 years.
Kidney donation improves the lives of kidney failure patients as well as their families and friends. a 30-year-old on dialysis would have a life expectancy of 15 years. With a deceased kidney donor transplant, life expectancy increases to 30 years. A living donor kidney transplant increases life expectancy to 40 years. The American tax credit system incentivizes behaviors that benefit the greater good like home ownership and child rearing. This goal is consistent with supporting Americans who give kidneys to strangers to save lives. People who give kidneys to strangers can multiply the impact of their gift by launching a kidney chain, a cluster of kidney transplants for incompatible donor/recipient pairs. The longest kidney chain included 114 recipients.
Honors the choice to donate. 95% of living kidney donors state they would do it again if they could. Donors undergo a thorough physical and mental health screening. Less than one-third of Americans are estimated to be healthy enough to be approved for donation. The need to be in top health results in living kidney donors living longer than the general population. Living kidney donation is safer than childbirth.
The End Kidney Deaths Act’s incentive is gradually allocated over time and sufficient to motivate far more people to save lives. No other law or policy proposal has increased the number of kidney donations. Without the End Kidney Deaths Act, the number of deaths from kidney failure will continue to devastate families.
Every American who can benefit from a new kidney should receive one
so that all who are currently suffering can instead survive and thrive.
Kidney donation is akin to a lifesaving medication.