KidneyPatriot™
The American Association of Kidney Patients promotes the interests of the lives and long-term outcomes of kidney patients through education, advocacy, and patient engagement. Join us, and become engaged in our Action Center where you can educate policy makers on how their decisions impact your life as a kidney patient, care partner, or living donor.
Welcome to Your Action Center!
Welcome to the fight to help kidney patients! Your vote and voice does count. Kidney disease has many human costs – stress over treatment choice and access, loss of income, the struggle to stay employed and free from dependency on disability assistance, stress on family and loved ones and delayed dreams. You play a vital role in shaping the future of kidney care.
Your Vote. Your Voice. Your Care Choice.
AAKP is here to help you make sure your VOTE counts and your VOICE is heard by elected and appointed leaders across America. You can help shape policies that create more CARE CHOICES that will make a difference in your care and the care of those yet to be diagnosed with kidney disease.
Lawmakers want to hear directly from kidney patients. Many of them are tired of hearing from lobbyists who claim they speak for you – but in reality have no patient experience, just special interests.
Download Our I Am A KidneyVoter™ Sign!
Click the button below to download our I Am A KidneyVoter™ sign. Print it at home, write your name, and snap a photo of yourself with your sign! Then, post your photo to social media or email it to jrate@aakp.org.
advocacy highlights
Over the past decade, AAKP patient advocates have helped advance the passage of the following.
1969 – AAKP founded in New York by 6 kidney patients.
1971 – AAKP co-founder Shep Glazer performs his dialysis in front of U.S. Congress!
1972 – U.S. Congress authorizes dialysis for all kidney failure patients, noting it is a bridge to transportation.
1973 – President Nixon signs bipartisan law creating national dialysis care. Over 1 million lives saved since 1973.
2013 – President Obama signs bipartisan law allowing HIV positive organ transplants for HIV positive patients.
2018 – U.S. Department of Labor extends Family Medical Leave (FMLA) protections to living kidney donors, protecting their jobs.
2019 – President Trump signs bipartisan Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health. Patient consumer care choice and innovations like the artificial kidney are accelerated.
2020 – President Trump signs bipartisan law establishing lifetime immunosuppressive drug coverage for kidney transplant patients.
2023 – President Biden signs bipartisan law modernizing the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) via greater competition and oversight.
