By: Tanner Adomaitis, Staff Writer
Originally Published April 9, 2024
On March 13, 2024, Ike Brannon visited Saint Vincent College (SVC) to give a talk titled How Do We Eliminate The Kidney Shortage, for the Center for Political and Economic Thought (CPET). Brannon is the president of Capitol Policy Analytics and is an economist who focuses on public policy issues. He earned his B.A. in Math, Spanish, and Economics from Augustana College and his Ph.D. In Economics from Indiana University. Brannon also spent around a decade working for the government.
Brannon began his talk by discussing how many people don’t have all the options available to receive a kidney transplant because they aren't aware of all the options or aren’t able to utilize them. He continued by explaining that there are not nearly enough kidney donations to help all people who need a kidney transplant, and how end stage kidney disease vastly disproportionately affects Black, Hispanic, and Native American people.
“One of my frustrations is that there is no collective outreach,” Brannon said. “No one is trying to call attention to the fact that Black, Hispanic, and Native American people are being affected at a disproportionate rate, and part of the reason is that people think nothing can be done.”
Brannon then explained that his original plan to help satisfy the shortage of kidneys so that everyone who needs one could receive one was to compensate people for donating kidneys. He noted that somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 would be enough for several Good Samaritans to donate a kidney. Brannon cited a paper that revealed with a policy that would compensate people kidney donors, the number of transplants could rise from 25,000 to 75,000 a year and eliminate the shortage.
Brannon and his team pushing this policy were met with extreme pushback, with barely anyone agreeing to meet and hear the policy and reasoning. Brannon explained that people he sought to meet with found the idea grotesque and that it would be exploitative.
“There were two different things going on. I think the first thing is that there’s this initial thing in your head that it’s a lot of people and by paying people for kidney, you’re using them because they don’t understand the risk they are taking,” Brannon said. “We also got several people accusing us of racism and that we would exploit poor minorities. However, right now white people are taken care of. It is minorities who aren’t taken care of, and it is better if you donate kidneys within your race group.”
The push back caused Brannon and his team to reevaluate their idea and approach and look to other parts of the world where they found that reimbursement policies for kidneys donors in Israel seemed to be working. Brannon and his team have now been working to pass legislation to cover all expenses that are placed on a kidney donor through the process, and noted that while small compensation was already provided, covering the total cost would create more incentive for donation and take pressure off the donor.
Brannon noted that this approach rallied more allies and supporters by removing the concerns of exploitation. Brannon explained that it will be a long process ahead still and ended his talk with questions from the audience.
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