When Jenn Diffendal donated one of her kidneys to a stranger in 2006, she was only one of 64 Americans to do so that year. However, the then-23-year-old did not expect that the selfless act would lead to her losing her job.

Diffendal said she was “threatened and coerced” into resigning from her position prior to her surgery, leaving her jobless with $50,000 in student loan debt. “My coerced resignation caused significant personal and financial strain,” she said.

Diffendal was one of several living organ donors who spoke in favor of House Bill 1132, also known as the CARE for Living Donors Act. Under the proposed legislation, donors like Diffendal would be protected against workplace discrimination, and would be eligible for a $10,000 refundable tax credit to help alleviate the financial burdens of organ donation, a barrier that currently prevents many people from becoming a donor.  

“This bill is a crucial step towards reducing barriers for living donors who are the key to saving more lives,” said Diffendal. 

Currently, there are over 2,000 Coloradans on an organ donation waitlist, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mary Bradfield, R-Colorado Springs. One of those people is Christina, a housekeeper in the State Services Building, where many first-term legislators’ offices are housed, including bill co-sponsor Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City.

Not unlike many others in need of an organ transplant, Christina has been on the waitlist for years, Rutinel said.

Rutinel said, “There are thousands of Coloradans just like Christina that are desperately waiting for that phone call saying, ‘We have an organ waiting for you.'”

When he told Christina about her proposed bill, Rutinel said it it would give her another chance at life.

In addition to offering tax credits and addressing workplace discrimination, the bill establishes a certification process for living donors through the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, requires transplant centers to refer donors to organ voucher programs, designates April 11 as “Living Donor Recognition Day,” and creates a special license plate for living organ donors.

‘Doggedly’ seeking a kidney 

Motorists driving along Highway 7 in Brighton last year might have been surprised by a billboard featuring a man and his dog alongside the phrases “doggedly seeking a kidney” and “please save my life.”

The man in that photo was Jeff Blumenfeld, who lost a kidney to cancer in 2009. After living with a single kidney for 13 years, his remaining organ began to fail.   

Blumenfeld started dialysis in 2023, which he likened to “being among the living dead.” Knowing he needed to find a donor, Blumenfeld used his background in public relations to deploy what he calls a “Madison Avenue-level marketing campaign” involving two websites, three television appearances, social media posts by two celebrities, postcards, business cards and billboards.

Finally, a woman from Boulder stepped forward to donate her kidney, which, although not a match for Blumenfeld, enabled him to find a suitable donor using her voucher. He underwent transplant surgery in late 2023.

“The shortage of kidneys is a national health crisis, a Colorado health crisis,” Blumefeld said. “There should be incentives for donation. Why make it more difficult than it is? Don’t allow donors to risk their jobs while recuperating. There should be family vouchers and a license plate! The state has a license plate for a stegosaurus – this should be an easy lift.”

A significant investment of time, money

When Patrick Lepak decided to donate his kidney to save his best friend’s life in 2021, he was soon inundated with medical appointments, tests and interviews that took up a significant amount of his time.

“It was a lot of work to shift my hours around and spread out appointments to limit the consequences of being away from work,” he said.

Because the time he had to take off of work in the months before his surgery didn’t count as medical PTO, Lepak said he had to “navigate a delicate path between wanting to go through this life-saving donation and doing well at my job.”

He said the policies outlined in HB 1132 would have given him much-needed relief from the anxiety he had felt about potentially losing his job. 

Lepak acknowledged that, though his job was flexible and allowed him to work from home while he recovered from surgery, many other potential donors don’t have that option and should be protected against employer retaliation for donating an organ.  

“Living organ donation is a proven way to save lives and I believe that our state should be doing its part to remove obstacles that might prevent our citizens from donating,” he said. 

Abie Rohrig, a Columbia University student who donated a kidney at 19 years old, said that providing a tax credit to donors could potentially motivate more individuals to donate organs to those in need who may not have the money or resources to create massive marketing campaigns in search of a donor.

Rohrig said he created a free service called Kidney Connect, which lets patients send press releases about their stories to journalists and news organizations in the hopes of finding a donor. 

“What I can say from my experience is that there are so many people from Colorado and around the nation who desperately, desperately want it to be easier for people to donate a kidney,” he said. “I know from speaking to many friends about kidney donation that the sorts of measures in this legislation would make a massive difference in whether or not they are willing to step forward.”

He added: “The costs associated with kidney donation are very significant, and a $10,000 tax credit would really, really go a long way and I think disproportionately benefit people who don’t have access to do these types of campaigns to try and get a kidney.”

Elaine Perlman, who is also a kidney donor and Abie’s mother, said low-income individuals are four times more likely to be on dialysis and four times less likely to receive a kidney transplant. She underscored the urgency of the issue, adding that 500 Coloradans die every year from kidney disease, and many remain on transplant waitlists until they are too sick to undergo the procedure.    

“Every time someone does not donate, it is very likely that someone on the waitlist will not get to live and will die from kidney failure,” she said. “Low-income Americans will be helped disproportionately by this bill. The poor are much more likely to die from kidney failure.”

Because of the disproportionate effect this legislation would have on the poor, Dr. Greg Whitman, a doctor in the area of public health, urged the bill’s sponsors to increase the amount.

While the original version of the bill included tax credits up to $40,000, that number was reduced to $10,000 to decrease the cost to the state. 

Whitman cited a study by the National Institute of Health that found the amount necessary to increase the number of living organ donors without exploiting them would be about $75,000.

“In order for us to provide care that isn’t exploitative to where we are not taking organs literally from poor people and putting them in other people, the dollar amount needs to be higher,” he said. 

State costs

The bill received almost unanimous support from the the Health and Human Services committee.

Rep. Ron. Weinberg, R- Berthoud, voted against it, citing concerns with the use of Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights dollars to partially fund the bill.

A fiscal analysis noted that 166 organ donations were made by living donors in Colorado last year. With a $40,000 payment – the bill’s original amount – the proposal would increase donations by 185% or about 480 per year.

Under these assumptions, the tax credits in the bill would reduce the state’s general fund revenue by $5.5 million in the current fiscal year, $15.1 million in the next, and $19.1 million in the third and later years.

The analysis noted that the bill would reduce income tax revenue, which is subject to TABOR.

Rep. Brandi Bradley, R- Littleton, shared similar concerns but expressed support for the bill, recounting the story of her teenage niece who passed away last year and donated her organs to a 5-year-old boy.

The bill will proceed to the Finance Committee for further review.