Racial Differences in Access to Kidney Transplantation

Previous work has documented large differences between black and white populations in overall kidney transplantation rates and in transplantation waiting times. This article examines access to transplantation using three measures: time from renal failure to transplant; time from renal failure to wait listing; and time from wait listing to transplantation. This study concludes the following: First, no matter what measure of transplant access is used, black end stage renal disease (ESRD) beneficiaries fare worse than white, Asian-American, or Native American ESRD beneficiaries. Second, because the rate of renal failure exceeds the number of cadaver organs, access to kidney transplantation will deteriorate in future years for all races.