Each Congress, NKF engages with legislators on multiple issues important to the kidney community.
Legislative Priorities
Recent Priority Legislation
NKF is primarily focused on these top priorities:
- The Living Donor Protection Act (LDPA): Eliminating discrimination against living donors in the procurement of life, disability, and long-term care insurance and codifing existing Dept. of Labor protections for living donors under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Insurance companies cannot drop a living donor, change their premiums, or refuse coverage based on their status as a living kidney donor.
- The Improving Access to Home Dialysis Act (IAHDA): Expanding patient choice and removes barriers to accessing home dialysis to ensure that all patients are given the opportunity to succeed on the dialysis modality that best suits their needs and preferences, regardless of their zip code.
- The Improving Transplantation Education and Navigation To Increase Patient Access Act: Establishes grants to community organizations to improve organ transplantation accessibility and provide assistance in navigating the transplantation process for patients from rural and other under-served areas, ensuring that low-income and rural patients are not barred from transplant due to geographic and socioeconomic factors.
- Kidney Disease Education Expansion Act:Empowers patients with knowledge through targeted kidney disease education programs and removing regulatory barriers to accessing this education to enable individual health management and reduce long-term healthcare costs by promoting early intervention.
NKF works in coalition with other organizations to support other healthcare and kidney-related bills, including:
- Treat and Reduce Obesity Act
- Medical Nutrition Therapy Act
- Honor Our Living Donors Act
- Healthcare Workforce Resiliency Act
- Expanding Support for Living Donors Act
- Organ Donation Referral Improvement Act
Appropriations Priorities
NKF advocates on behalf of funding for programs that improve the lives of kidney patients through surveillance, screening, and early detection at the CDC’s Chronic Kidney Disease Initiative, and research and innovation through the National Institutes of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Diseases and NIH. NKF also supports full funding for the HRSA Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Modernization Initiative.
Please reach out to Lauren Drew, Sr. Director of Congressional Relations, for further information on NKF legislative or appropriations priorities.
Top Letters and Testimony to Congress
Top Letters and Testimony to Congress
