Sep 20, 2024

From pigs to payouts, weighing solutions for the US kidney shortage

Kidneys are currently the most needed organ in the country, and an ongoing crisis has left tens of thousands in limbo.

As of September, nearly 90,000 people in the US are waiting for kidneys, but only around 27,000 transplants were performed in 2024, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). That makes for a grim reality: One out of every 20 people on the waiting list die every year, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) estimates.

Jun 4, 2024

How kidney transplant reforms can save lives and reduce the deficit

For months, Congress has debated budget bill after budget bill, narrowly missing government shutdown deadlines seemingly every month. With a divided Congress and narrow majorities in both chambers, consensus on many topics seems hard to come by nowadays. 
Yet, lawmakers of both parties should embrace one area of reform that will save money and lives: kidney transplants and increasing living donations.

Nov 16, 2023

I donated a kidney to a stranger. It shouldn’t be this tough for others to give

When a beloved character in a movie needs a life-saving organ transplant, it almost always magically works out for a happy ending. My father’s story went this way, and I am forever thankful for it. But this is not the case for most Americans currently awaiting an organ transplant. And unless we fix our country’s broken transplant system, it will continue to be the norm.

Oct 30, 2023

KTC Signs On To Support the Saving Organs One Flight at a Time Act

The Kidney Transplant Collaborative recently signed on to a letter supporting the Saving Organs One Flight at a Time Act.

Aug 15, 2023

Saving Lives While Saving Money

The Living Kidney Donor Support Act would benefit tens of thousands of Americans and save billions of tax dollars. The United States does not have enough transplant kidneys to provide one to each person suffering from end‐​stage kidney disease who would benefit from a transplant.

Aug 4, 2023

The high out-of-pocket cost of donating a kidney

“All of your medical and surgical expenses will be paid by your recipient’s insurance,” the nurse coordinator at the Mayo Clinic told me. Naïve, I nodded into the phone at this reassurance. I had already worked with her to have several vials of my blood shipped from my home in Kansas City to Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota, all at no cost to me. Now she was calling to tell me the astounding news: Tests on that blood had revealed I was a perfect match for Deb Porter Gill, a kidney patient I had read about in the newspaper two months before.

Aug 2, 2023

A Living Kidney Donor Saved My Father’s Life — Others Aren’t So Fortunate

When a beloved character in a movie needs a life-saving organ transplant, it almost always magically works out for a happy ending. My father’s story went this way, and I am forever thankful for it. But this is not the case for most Americans currently awaiting an organ transplant. And unless we fix our country’s broken transplant system, it will continue to be the norm.

Jul 31, 2023

The Kidney Transplant Collaborative Shares Statement Regarding Grant Recipient Success Story

Washington, D.C. (July 31, 2023) – The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) today shared a statement regarding a historic success story from Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), one of KTC’s inaugural grant recipients.

May 16, 2023

Opinion: As we examine organ-transplant failures, let’s make living donations a key focus

Nearly 106,000 Americans are currently on the transplant waiting list. Sadly, 17 of them will die each
day waiting for the organ that could save their lives.