Tag: HR 6020

Help Is on the Way: HOLD Act Advances!

If you’ve never heard of the HOLD (Honor Our Living Donors) Act, I can assure you this is good news! Great news, in fact, for potential living donors, so, by extension, for potential kidney recipients. If this bill becomes federal law, the National Living Donor Assistance Center, or NLDAC, would consider only the donor’s income–not the recipient’s, too–when deciding whether to provide critical financial assistance and reimbursement to donors. Seems logical, don’t you think? And yet, for years, NLDAC has perversely considered both.

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As a living donor to my son, I can tell you that the very idea of putting both potential donor and recipient in such an untenable position makes me want to scream. I explained more when I wrote about it here last fall when the bill was introduced.

Okay, but that was in November. What’s the great news?

Remember, now, this is federal legislation so everything moves very slowly (need I remind you about the Living Donor Protection Act?). That said, this particular bill has had bipartisan support, has already been referred to a committee (Energy and Commerce) and, last month, passed unanimously!

The HOLD Act now awaits consideration by the House as a whole. Please contact your member of Congress and urge him or her to lend support to the HOLD Act, HR 6020. If they are already sponsors or cosponsors, be sure to thank them!

For related posts and information on my book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.

HOLD Act = Aid for More Would-be Donors

If you’ve read any of my blog posts about financial assistance for living donors, you know that one of my pet peeves (boy, is that a euphemism!) is the practice of making aid for donors dependent on their recipient‘s income, as has been the policy through the federal National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC).

So I was delighted to see a bipartisan piece of legislation introduced in Congress last month that would shift the emphasis and could directly lead to more people becoming living organ donors. The Honor Our Living Donors (HOLD) Act (H.R. 6020) would help more donors qualify for reimbursement from NLDAC for lost wages and travel and caregiving expenses–based on the donor’s own financial status. (Fortunately, there are currently other options–see my Resources section–but a federal assistance program needs to be available to everyone.)

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As the mother of my recipient, I know both sides of this very special relationship. We were fortunate that I was able to donate to my son. If that had not been possible, I can’t imagine the extra emotional and financial strain that trying to help a donor would have put on our family. The obvious potential for tension and discomfort (for both parties) inherent in this perverse system is not only unfair but also counterproductive. Thousands of lives are lost each year because so many patients’ potential donors decline to donate because of these obstacles.

If you want to help living donors–and thereby kidney patients–please contact your member of Congress now to help build support for this urgently needed bill (HR 6020). And if your representative happens to be either Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif), who introduced the bill, or Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), who cosponsored it–be sure to thank them.

For related posts and information on my book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.