CityAndStateNY.com
November 22 – November 29, 2021
Why isn’t it easier to donate a kidney in New York?
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EVEN THOUSAND New Yorkers need a kidney. At current donation rates, just 1,500 are likely to receive one in the next year. Of the remaining 5,500, around 400 will die. Black New Yorkers, who constitute 18% of the state population, will make up 36% of these deaths. As a result of low rates of kidney donation, New York has the seventh highest kidney waitlist in the nation per capita. Two bills have been introduced in the state Senate to promote kidney donation: One would fully reimburse the costs of kidney donation, and a second would go a step further by offering kidney donors free lifetime health insurance. Yet despite broad support among New York lawmakers for these measures, proponents have struggled to make kidney donation a legislative priority. “I think kidney advocacy doesn’t garner as much attention as it could,” said Kim Constantinesco, a kidney donor and advocate from Brooklyn. “There isn’t a sense of urgency with kidneys compared to other organs.” In the meantime, the supply of available kidneys remains woefully insufficient to meet the demand. Those whose lives hang in the balance include Vito Ottomanelli, a Bronxville native currently on the waitlist. “My nephrologist tells me it’s a five- to seven-year wait time. I have to go by that. I don’t know what else to go by,” he said. Three times a week, four hours at a time, Vito leaves his part time job as an insurance salesman to go to a dialysis center where machines filter out waste products from his blood. The process is emotionally and physically exhausting. “I’m sitting here in limbo. When am I going to get a kidney?” Ottomanelli told City & State. Giving kidney donors free health care Other countries have taken bold steps to encourage kidney donation, and a proposed bill would allow New York to follow suit. In 2010, Israel began compensating kidney donors up to $10,000 to cover disability, life, and health insurance, as well as a paid weeklong recovery vacation after surgery. Donations increased by 64% the following year. Today, Israel leads the world
in living kidney donation, with a rate six times higher than New York. Death from kidney disease has decreased by 17%. James Skoufis, a Democratic state senator from the Hudson Valley, proposed legislation in 2019 that would move New York in a similar direction by offering free lifetime health insurance to all kidney donors. The bill is currently in the state Senate Health Committee. “This legislation would ensure that folks
Legislation to support donors has struggled to gain momentum while thousands wait for a transplant.
This story is published in partnership with New York Focus.
By Abie Rohrig
who are selfless enough to donate a kidney are provided with the peace of mind that they will never have to worry about health insurance again, and it acts as an incentive for those who may never have considered donation,” Skoufis wrote in an email, adding that the bill would more than pay for itself by reducing dialysis. “The cost of supplying otherwise healthy kidney donors with healthcare for life is negligible when compared to the expense of treating thou-
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