KIDNEY PATIENTS CALL BIPARTISAN POLICY MOST SIGNIFICANT IN 50 YEARS
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) today issued a patient editorial on the first anniversary of the Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative, signed by President Donald Trump on July 10, 2019. The sweeping Executive Order calls for an end to status quo kidney care in in the United States, which has been plagued by extremely high mortality rates, lack of medical innovation, limited utilization of home dialysis, and barriers to kidney transplantation.
The editorial was prepared by two kidney patients, AAKP Chair of Public Policy and Global Affairs Paul T. Conway and AAKP Secretary and Chair of the AAKP Veterans Health Initiative Edward V. Hickey III, USMC. Conway and Hickey have both served in multiple presidential administrations and have been responsible in developing and implementing executive branch policies and congressional legislation throughout their careers, including healthcare and homeland security initiatives. Both Conway and Hickey have been patient editorial contributors to the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
AAKP President Richard Knight, a 14-year kidney transplant patient stated, “The Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health launched the most substantive, bipartisan, and optimistic change in American kidney policy in over 50 years. Kidney disease has a disproportionately negative impact among minorities and AAKP applauds President Trump and Secretary Azar for their bold commitment to accelerate new technologies and patient access to transplantation. As AAKP leaders Paul T. Conway and Edward V. Hickey highlight in their AAKP editorial, there are no permanent victories in politics and policy, only permanent battles–so AAKP will keep up our fight to expand kidney patient consumer care choice and to improve patient outcomes.”
The Executive Order is the first chapter in what AAKP has termed The Decade of the Kidney™–a period in which status quo kidney care will end and patient consumers and their innovation allies will drive wider care choice and treatment options so that patients can fulfill their aspirations to work, have a family and or career, and to retire securely.Since 2018, AAKP has conducted the largest virtual kidney voter registration drive in America, the “I am a Kidney Voter” campaign, which has registered patients in every state.
The AAKP 3rd Annual Washington, D.C., Public Policy Summit will be held on August 6, 2020. The event will review top kidney policy issues under discussion in the nation’s capital, including a review of both progress and push back associated with the Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health.
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About the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP): AAKP is the oldest and largest kidney patient advocacy organization in the United States. AAKP patients led the 1972-73 effort in the U.S. Congress with White House officials to create the End Stage Renal Disease Program, which has saved 1+ million lives through dialysis care. Visit www.aakp.org and follow their social media: @kidneypatient on Facebook and @kidneypatients on Twitter.
