Letter for the DPC in support of Indiana's LDPA

 

January 4, 2022

The Honorable Andy Zay

Chair, Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee

Indiana General Assembly

200 W. Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN  46204-2785

RE:  SB 95

Dear Chairman Zay and Members of the Committee:

My name is Jim Myers. I am a resident of Hammond, a former dialysis patient,  a kidney transplant patient and a volunteer Patient Ambassador for Dialysis Patient Citizens (DPC). 

Founded in 2004, DPC is a nationwide, nonprofit, patient-led organization dedicated to improving the lives of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients by advocating for favorable public policy that supports their needs and improves patient outcomes. Our policies and mission are guided solely by our membership, which is open to all dialysis patients and their families. Our volunteer Board consists entirely of ESRD patients.

Today I write on behalf of the nearly 15,000  Hoosiers with ESRD to ask for your support of SB 95, which would help remove barriers to organ transplants so that more ESRD patients could receive a kidney transplant from a living donor. Patients with kidney failure must receive dialysis treatments three or more times per week or receive a kidney transplant just to survive. Of the nearly half a million ESRD patients nationwide who are receiving dialysis, approximately 100,000 of them are currently awaiting a kidney transplant.  Of these, more than nine hundred  Hoosiers are currently on the kidney transplant wait list.

Living kidney donors are desperately needed because the number of ESRD patients waiting for a transplant is far greater than the number of kidneys that become available for transplant through deceased donor matches. In addition to increasing the supply of kidneys available for transplant, living kidney donations can significantly decrease the wait time for patients to receive a transplant, thus reducing the number of patient deaths among those waiting for a transplant and lowering health care costs of prolonged dialysis treatments.

Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee - 2

Indiana General Assembly

How will SB 95 help Hoosiers who are awaiting kidney transplant? In order to expand the number of kidneys available for transplant, more people need to make the choice to become a living kidney donor. However, even when someone wants to donate a kidney they often face multiple financial barriers that prevent them from going through with their lifesaving organ donation. SB 95 helps address some of these barriers by prohibiting discrimination of living organ donors by insurance companies who offer life insurance, disability insurance, or long term care insurance from charging higher rates, denying coverage and other actions.

I urge you to support SB 95 that removes some of the financial barriers that prevent ESRD patients from receiving a life-saving kidney transplant.

Sincerely,

Jim Myers

940 Kenwood Street 

Apt 426

Hammond,  IN 46320

219 359 6616

kidneystories@hotmail.com 

idneystories@ hotmail.com