In September, I donated my kidney to a stranger. I’m not a doctor or policymaker. I’m a 66-year-old Utah resident who was inspired by an episode of “Freakonomics Radio.” The episode featured a man who had donated his kidney at age 65. By the end of the program, I was in tears and told my wife, “I think I could do that too.”

One year later, I did. My kidney went to a stranger in our community, and within moments of transplant, it began functioning. That gift not only extended someone’s life (and blessed mine), it also saved the federal government and the taxpayers roughly $500,000 for the cost of dialysis we would otherwise cover.

That is why I urge Rep. Mike Kennedy to co-sponsor and champion the End Kidney Deaths Act (H.R. 2687). As a physician, attorney and public servant, he is uniquely qualified to lead on this bipartisan, life-saving policy.

The bill creates a 10-year pilot program that compensates Americans who donate a kidney to a stranger with a refundable tax credit of $10,000 per year for five years. These donations would go to patients who have been waiting the longest. By year 10, the End Kidney Deaths Act could lead to 100,000 more Americans receiving lifesaving kidney transplants. It could also save taxpayers up to $37 billion.

Many of us know and care about people impacted by kidney disease. My aunt died of kidney failure. My neighbor did too. My nephew would have died, but received a life-saving kidney from my son. However, we are mostly unaware of the scale of the kidney crisis as it unfolds around us every day. There is a waiting list for kidneys, but nearly 100,000 people are on it nationally and many die without getting a kidney. The tragedy is that this crisis is preventable.

Here in Utah, 2,324 people were on dialysis last year, and 543 died waiting. If a natural disaster took 543 lives in our state, we would mobilize. The same urgency is needed for this preventable public health crisis.

The kidney shortage is deadly. From 2010 to 2021, 100,000 Americans who qualified for the transplant waitlist died before receiving a kidney. Each year only about 400 Americans donate kidneys to strangers. These “non-directed” donors often start kidney chains, in which one donation enables a series of transplants for incompatible donor-recipient pairs. One chain benefited 114 recipients.

Right now, the United States taxpayers spend $50 billion per year on dialysis, a treatment that is painful, time-consuming and far more expensive than transplantation. That is 1% of all federal tax revenue going toward one chronic condition, kidney failure, most of it spent on care that keeps patients alive, but not well.

Meanwhile, the solution is sitting right in front of us. We can end this kidney shortage. There are millions of people with two healthy kidneys. If just a small fraction chose to share one and keep the other, the kidney crisis would be over. Living kidney donation is safer than childbirth and more durable than deceased donor transplantation. Most deceased donor kidneys come from just 1% of deaths, those that occur in hospitals with ventilator support. Even in an ideal scenario, deceased donation cannot meet the need.

Congress already uses the tax code to reward prosocial behavior. Also, we compensate police officers, firefighters and military personnel for taking risks to save lives. Why not compensate Americans who step forward to save someone from dying on dialysis? This bill has been endorsed by patients, donors, physicians, economists and transplant experts.

I urge Rep. Kennedy to lend his support and leadership to this bill.

We do not need more studies or more delays. We need action. Every day we wait, 23 more Americans die waiting for a kidney. We can do better. We must.

Joe Haynie lives in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. In 2024, at age 65, he donated his kidney to a stranger through the National Kidney Registry.