Trump signs bill providing lifetime transplant drug coverage
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President Donald J. Trump today approved a legislative package that includes lifetime coverage of immunosuppressants for kidney transplant recipients.
The legislation, passed by Congress last week as part of a larger COVID-19 relief package, extends Medicare coverage of the medications to patients of all ages and will go into effect in January 2023.
“Thanks to Congress, the Trump administration and the entire kidney community who continuously advocated for this legislation alongside AKF [American Kidney Fund], a vital safety net for ESRD patients for whom access to health care is a matter of life and death will now go into effect,” LaVarne A. Burton, president and CEO of AKF, said in a related press release. “This legislation will support the 230,000 Americans living with a kidney transplant and will free up space on the transplant waiting list because a lack of access to immunosuppressive drugs will no longer be a sole cause of organ rejection.”
According to Burton, approval of this bill furthers the goals of the administration’s Advancing American Kidney Health initiative — specifically, improving the transplantation rate in the United States — by preventing transplant recipients from returning to the waitlist due to their inability to access appropriate medications.
“These public policies are indispensable in our fight against kidney disease and reinforce the importance of the administration’s initiative to make the kidney disease epidemic a national health priority,” she said.
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