There was a newfound momentum this spring for laws that protect living organ donors, with eight states enacting new legislation. Between April and June, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Nebraska, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana and Minnesota passed new laws increasing living donor protections. With these laws, each state’s grade on AKF’s State of the States Living Donor Protection Report Card was raised a letter – and ultimately raised the national average grade from a D to a C!
AKF launched our first annual State of the States: Living Donor Protection Report Card in 2021 to evaluate how well each state and the District of Columbia protect living organ donors. The Report Card assigns each state a letter grade from A to F based on how well their existing laws encourage living organ donation and reduce barriers for living donors, such as anti-insurance discrimination laws, tax credits for donor expenses and job-protected leave.
AKF has been leading efforts at the state and federal levels to secure these protections. However, we could not have done it without the help of AKF Ambassadors like Kat Velkoff, Beth Burbridge, Ruth and Crystal Scott – as well as all the participants in AKF’s 2022 Kidney Action Summit – who spoke to their elected officials, s