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Tell Congress: Remember to consider kidney patients!

Tell Congress to care about kidney issues!

37 million Americans have kidney disease and most of them don’t know that they have it. Kidney disease is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.

There are nearly 556,000 people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis and over 208,000 people living with a kidney transplant.

One out of every five Medicare dollars is spent on kidney disease. In 2018, total Medicare spending for ESRD was $48 billion.

Nearly half of new cases of kidney failure are caused by diabetes, and about a quarter of the new cases are caused by hypertension.

Congress should do more to address kidney disease in the United States.

We need more research so we can find a cure. We need to protect living donors from discrimination. We need to ensure that kidney patients have access to the affordable and high quality health care.

Please email your members of Congress today and urge them to remember kidney patients.

Recipients

  • Your Senators
  • Your Representative

Contact

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The following questions are for AKF internal use only
1.
Question - Not Required - What is your connection to kidney disease?

2.


 

Once you submit the form, your personalized message will be sent directly to your members of Congress.
 
 

Message

Please remember kidney patients when implementing new laws in the United States!

Dear [Decision Maker],



As your constituent, I am writing to ask you to do more to address kidney disease in the United States.

37 million Americans have kidney disease and most of them don't know that they have it.

Kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death in the U.S.

There are nearly 556,000 people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis and over 208,000 people living with a kidney transplant.

One out of every five Medicare dollars is spent on kidney disease. In 2018, total Medicare spending for ESRD was $48 billion.

Nearly half of new cases of kidney failure are caused by diabetes, and about a quarter of the new cases are caused by hypertension.

We can do more to prevent kidney disease, and I am hoping you will help!

I am asking you to do three things:

1) Support more research dollars for kidney research. Dialysis and transplantation are still the only ways to treat kidney failure. There have been no significant medical advances to treat kidney disease in almost 50 years. We want a cure. We would like to see an increase of 5% to the approximately $660 million spent on kidney research at NIH and $25 million for the KidneyX program.

2) Please cosponsor H.R. 1255/S. 377, the Living Donor Protection Act, which protects living donors from discrimination in life insurance and provides them with Family Medical Leave Act coverage so they can take time off from work to donate.

3) Please cosponsor H.R. 3893, the CARE for All Kidneys Act, which aims to stop the current trajectory of ESRD. It is projected that there will be over 1 million Americans on dialysis by 2030, and H.R. 3893 would create a national action plan to educate patients and providers and also develop and implement early interventions targeted at the hardest hit demographic groups.

Thank you in advance to helping us!

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]