STATE OF THE STATES:

2023 AKF Living Donor Protection Report Card

Together, we can give living organ donors the protections they need, no matter where they live.

received based on how laws encourage living organ donation and reduce barriers for living donors.
grades-key
  • Protection from life, disability or long-term care insurance discrimination
  • Job-protected leave from private employers
  • Job-protected leave from public employers
  • Tax credits for employers who provide paid leave
  • Direct reimbursements, tax credits or tax deductions for donor expenses
  • Paid leave via Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) laws
  • More than 60 days of leave via FMLA laws

Text KIDNEY to 52886 or visit KidneyFund.org/act to get involved in legislative efforts in your state. Visit KidneyFund.org/ldpa to ask your members of Congress to support the federal Living Donor Protection Act

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Living donor laws: Progress made, but more work ahead to protect those giving the gift of life

Since 2021, the American Kidney Fund (AKF) has graded each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on how well their laws encourage living organ donation and reduce barriers for living donors. In our third annual Living Donor Protection Report Card, we are pleased to note progress that has been made in many states. In the past year, 10 laws that provide protection or financial support for living organ donors passed in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Delaware (twice!), Nebraska, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota and New York, making living donation easier. With these laws in place, each state’s grade on the Living Donor Protection Report Card either remained the same or was raised a letter since our first Report Card in 2021, ultimately raising the national average grade from a D to a C. 

Yet there remains a great deal of work to be done at the state and federal level. Until federal legislation is enacted to give baseline protections to living donors nationwide, states are still operating with a patchwork of living donor protection laws.

Donating a kidney is one of the most selfless actions a person can take, yet many states don’t have laws in place to protect donors from life, disability or long-term care insurance discrimination. Similarly, many states don’t have laws on the books that make it possible for donors to take adequate time off work to recover from the surgery. Barriers like these discourage living organ donation, and AKF’s public policy team is working with our patient Ambassadors nationwide to remove these barriers by changing the laws.  

Together, we can give living organ donors the protections they need, no matter where they live.

Learn how we graded the states.

Living Donor Protection Report Card: Why it matters

Select a state to view statistics

National living donor statistics

104,000 people

are currently on the national transplant waiting list

87% of people

are waiting for a kidney*

* as of January 23, 2023.

In 2022, there were 5,863 living organ donations out of 26,308 kidney transplants 

That is about 1 in 5 transplants

In recent years, 32 states enacted legislation spearheaded by AKF to remove barriers and protect living donors. In 2022, nine states enacted such legislation.

More than 20,000 AKF Ambassadors are working to advocate for living donor protections and other types of legislation at the state and federal levels to improve the lives of people with kidney disease.

The Report Card measures seven types of legislation:

Number of states
Protection from life, disability or long-term care insurance discrimination 32
Job-protected leave from private employers 13
Job-protected leave from public employers 38
Tax credits for employers who provide paid leave 5
Direct reimbursements, tax credits or tax deductions for donor expenses 21
Paid leave via Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) laws 2
More than 60 days of leave via FMLA laws 2
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